


One for the fame, one for the game, one for the way, I'm gonna take

by balzamchik



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: 3racha are superheroes, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Flustered Gays, Humour, Idol!Minho, M/M, Slow Burn, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Texting, danceracha are idols, others are yet to be sorted, spiderman!jisung
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:59:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 47,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23268103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/balzamchik/pseuds/balzamchik
Summary: The red and blue guy pointed at himself in mock surprise.‘Wait, you really don’t know me?’ He shook his head defeatedly. ‘All those publicity stunts - and for nothing… I’m Spiderman, of course!’There was a long uncomfortable pause.‘What, no one?’ He unbelievingly asked. ‘Wow…’Minho shrugged a bit, as far as he could, with the douchebags still holding him.‘I might have seen you with Batman on the news once,’ he supplied helpfully. ‘Friendly Area Spiderman?’Spiderman shifted his weight a little, and even though he was wearing a mask, Minho knew for sure that he was beaming. He could just feel it.‘Yeah! Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spiderman! That’s me!’
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Lee Felix/Seo Changbin
Comments: 73
Kudos: 440





	1. Chapter 1

Minho knew it was a bad idea to sneak out, especially now - just a few weeks before comeback. Hyungjin told him not to do it, and Felix would’ve agreed with him, if he wasn’t sleeping peacefully, since it was around 2 am.

  
‘Ah, don’t worry Jinnie,’ Minho adjusted his cap and put a black mask on, slowly untangling its strings and his own dangly earrings, ‘I’ll be back before you notice. I just really need some fresh air right now.’

  
Hyungjin puffed his cheeks, thus expressing his irritation, but did nothing more. He was equally tired, ready to join Felix in his peaceful slumber.

  
‘Just don’t get into trouble,’ Hyungjin waved at him and yawned.

  
Minho sent him a glare over his shoulder.

  
‘Yah, when do I ever get into trouble?’

  
But Hyungjin already left. So much for all his worry.

  
Minho quietly closed the door behind him and managed to not bump into anyone on his way out of the building.

  
As soon as he went outside sweet and cool night air filled his lungs. After staying in practice room for God knows how many hours, this was a welcome change. Minho walked in no particular direction, enjoying the way his muscles strained after a whole day of non-stop dancing.

  
Despite the late hour, the streets seemed busy. Minho debated getting some ice cream, catching a sight of a giggling couple who carried two comically large cons. He followed the way they came from and - indeed there was a tent selling ice cream.

  
Minho got a strawberry flavoured one and pulled down his mask. Although chances of running into someone who might recognize him were slim, they were not zero, so he decided to take his ice cream off busy central street and to a quieter alleyway. The alley he found himself on was darker, but there were no people.

  
There was a cat, however.

  
‘Oh, hello, kitty,’ Minho cooed and crouched down next to a sociable cat who exited its shelter in between two wet cardboard boxes just to bump its head against Minho’s knee. ‘Ain’t you pretty?’ The cat purred. ‘Yes, you are… You are so pretty…’

  
There was no one to hear him baby talk to a stray cat, so he didn’t try to look or sound presentable.

  
Suddenly, a door opened behind him, filling the still air with sounds of EDM music. Both Minho and the cat turned around.

  
‘Come on, let’s drink s’more,’ whined a guy who exited first. ‘I’m not dr.. drunk at all!’

  
Two more guys followed him and the door closed, cutting off loud beats.

  
‘Let’s just hit ‘nother club, what’s the problem,’ agreed one of them, swaying on his feet.

  
The third one looked around, as if trying to focus on something. He then noticed Minho.

  
‘Hey!’ He pointed at Minho, his hand making a cartoonish arc in the process. ‘What are you looking at?’

  
Just amazing. Minho rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the cat. Without much cooing, though. Just in case.

  
The cat, however, had a change of heart. It arched its back, hissed and slid between Minho’s legs to hide somewhere in the darkness.

  
‘Great,’ Minho sighed.

  
Next thing a shadow fell over him. Startled, he flinched and scooted away from the figure.

  
One of the three guys approached him, still swaying, and was looking down on him, squinting his eyes.  
‘What the fuck did you just say to me?’ He demanded loudly.

  
Minho stood up, not enjoying this drunken schmuck towering over him. He was super tall. Minho wasn’t sure how to react and opted for silence.

  
The guy’s friends joined him.

  
‘Who the hell are you?’ One of them, with his head shaved, inquired.

  
The third one was shorter than Minho, but he compensated for it in bulk.

  
‘Look at his earrings,’ he suddenly remarked. Minho marveled at his ability to focus on such a tiny detail in his intoxicated state. ‘Ah, I hate it when guys wear such shit! Like, are you a fag or something?’

  
The whole situation was taking rather risky undertones and Minho eyed the blind alley behind his back and the only way back to the main street, currently blocked by three drunk dickheads. He was beginning to realize that it was very irresponsible of him to just sneak out of the dorms like that.  
He raised his hands peacefully.

  
‘Okay, guys, I don’t want any trouble…’ he started, not really knowing how to proceed.

  
The tall one didn’t let him finish.

  
‘Well, it’s kinda too late for that, sugar,’ he put one hand on Minho’s shoulder, holding him in place. Minho tried to pull away, but he just tightened his grip. ‘You shouldn’t have come out dressed like this.’

  
Minho couldn’t help pulling an incredulous face at that remark. He literally was wearing black ripped jeans and deep green hoody. If this was so offensive for the douchebag, he would have had a stroke, if he ever saw Minho performing on stage. Speaking of which, none of them seemed to recognize him. Good.

  
‘Let’s do something’ the bald head supplied, smirking in a dumb, but somehow menacing way, and also grabbed the front of Minho’s hoody, ‘to teach this fucking fairy a lesson.’

  
Okay, Minho was definitely fucked. And not even in a sexy raunchy hot way.

  
Then there was a low whoosh.

  
‘Wow, gentlemen, I didn’t realize you were teachers!’ Someone cheerfully commented. ‘So about that lesson, do you mind me attending?’

  
They all turned around to look at the newcomer. Without releasing their hold on Minho, though. He tried to break free, but to no avail.

  
The figure dressed in a blue and red suit, wearing a mask that fully covered their head, shook their finger at them.

  
‘Now, now, let that poor thing go,’ the masked character clicked his tongue. ‘We are all civilized people, we can settle this peacefully’.

  
The short one took a step to him. Which was, honestly, nice. If only the others were so taken in by this flashy colourful costume.

  
‘Who the fuck are you?’ Gracefully managed the shorty.

  
The red and blue guy pointed at himself in mock surprise.

  
‘Wait, you really don’t know me?’ He shook his head defeatedly. ‘All those publicity stunts - and for nothing… I’m Spiderman, of course!’

  
There was a long uncomfortable pause.

  
‘What, no one?’ He asked unbelievingly. ‘Wow…’

  
Minho shrugged a bit, as far as he could, with the douchebags still holding him.

  
‘I might have seen you with Batman on the news once,’ he supplied helpfully. ‘Friendly Area Spiderman?’

  
Spiderman shifted his weight a little, and even though he was wearing a mask, Minho knew for sure that he was beaming. He could just feel it.

  
‘Yeah! Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spiderman! That’s me!’

  
Minho waved at him.

  
‘Argh, ‘kay, let’s just beat them up,’ suddenly decided the tall one, as if his brain finally caught up on the situation.

  
He turned back to Minho and was already raising his fist, when something caught his hand and jerked it back with such force that the guy stumbled and let go of Minho. The other one that was still holding Minho turned his head just in time to get his face full of elbow.

  
Minho could just watch in amazement (and just the tiniest bit of fright) as this Spiderman character easily overpowered three dudes and then proceeded to glue them to the wall with web that shot right out of his hands.

  
‘You can just… produce this thing?’ Minho curiously came closer to watch.

  
Spiderman shrugged.

  
‘Yeah? It’s like my superpower. Well, one of them.’

  
The door opened to the left of the glued trio. A man exited, paused, took a long look at the whole picture and hurried away, looking over his shoulder. Minho couldn’t help a giggle when he closed the corner. He must have thought he was seeing things from too much alcohol.

  
Yeah, what a night, right?

  
‘So,’ Spiderman finished with the trio and turned to Minho, ‘Are you okay?’

  
His mask head big white eyes on it, but his actual eyes were invisible. It was rather weird talking to someone whose face you couldn’t fully see. Minho himself often wore a mask, but that was totally different.

  
Speaking of the mask. Minho looked around, but didn’t see his own black mask discarded in the middle of all that hustle.

  
‘I’m okay, I guess,’ he replied, a bit lost. ‘Just… you know… shaken.’

  
Spiderman came closer.

  
‘Oh, so you don’t pick fights with random jerks as a hobby?’

  
Minho felt a smile forcing its way onto his lips. He did feel shaken, but this guy was just too impossible.

  
‘No, I’m more of a needlework kind of person, actually.’

  
Spiderman didn’t answer and Minho couldn’t know if he smiled at this extremely lame joke or not. He looked at the brightly lit street and back at Minho.

  
‘So… it’s late,’ he said. ‘I can walk you home.’

  
Minho blinked at him, a bit surprised at the sudden change of topic.

  
‘You know… if you want to? To make you feel… less shaken and more safe?’ He sounded almost unsure.

  
Minho imagined going all that way back to SKZ building on his own. For some reason the night air, so sweet and fresh earlier, didn’t feel so welcoming anymore. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t want to be alone. Like, at all.

  
‘Sure, I’d love that,’ he nodded enthusiastically. ‘But…What if people see us together?’

  
Spiderman shrugged.

  
‘So what?’

  
Minho was already risking it by sneaking out at night. He imagined his manager’s face if he was caught waltzing back with a newly established superhero. Boy, he would also let Felix and Hyungjin down - they were a team after all.

  
‘Wait a sec,’ Minho pulled his hoody off, revealing a regular white T-shirt underneath. He held the hoody out for Spiderman. ‘Here, put it on.’

  
Spiderman just looked at him.

  
Minho rolled his shoulders somewhat nervously. What if he changes his mind after being treated like this? Minho knew he could be such a bitch sometimes, he didn’t want to bitch at the guy who potentially saved his life.

  
‘It’s just…’ under the blank stare of the mask he felt his cheeks grow warm with embarrassment. ‘I have to keep a low profile at the moment. I wasn’t allowed to go out today.’

  
Spiderman still kept silent. He probably was offended. He was a superhero, and here Minho managed to weird him out already just by being himself. Nice, Minho, nice.

  
‘Sorry, I-‘ he looked down, feeling defeated by his own stupidity, and wanted to clutch the damn hoody to his chest, but Spiderman reached out and took it.

  
‘Sure!’ He slid it on and even pulled down the hood to cover his ridiculous bright red mask. Minho stared at him. ‘How do I look?’

  
Minho blinked, taking in the whole look. He then reached for his phone in back pocket of his jeans and opened the camera app.

  
‘Like a fashion disaster,’ he said honestly. ‘Mind if I keep this for posterity?’

  
Spiderman chuckled and posed with a peace sign. Minho quickly took a photo. He wondered if it still would be in his camera roll when he woke up next day. It all felt like a bizarre dream.

  
‘So, shall we?’ Spiderman gestured with his hand in the direction of the main street.

  
They made it a few street without seeing anyone. The ice cream tent was closed already.

  
‘Can’t believe they didn’t recognize me,’ Spiderman said. ‘I mean, I know I’m not as big as Superman or Batman yet, but hey! We’ve been doing some work together.’

  
‘Collabing,’ Minho nodded.

  
‘Collabing,’ agreed Spiderman. ‘They do see potential in me. Just wait and see, I’ll be number one hero someday.’

  
Though the topic of superheroes was new, the line of conversation felt familiar. Minho had this talk hundreds of times - with Felix and Hyungjin when they all were trainees. He could relate to that.

  
‘I’m sure you will,’ he agreed easily. ‘For one, you saved me, like a true dashing hero.’

  
Spiderman chuckled and looked at him underneath his hood.

  
They were walking rather slowly and Minho finally felt the tiredness catching back to him. After all, he had a long day even before this eventful night. He couldn’t feel it back in the alley, because he was still too shocked, but now, with a whole ass superhero next to him, Minho felt safe.

  
‘Oh, I haven’t thanked you for that,’ he realized. ‘Thanks… for saving my life back there, I guess? I mean, I don’t know what would have happened, if it wasn’t for you.’

  
Spiderman hummed softly.

  
‘And I should also thank you on the behalf of my children,’ he added. ‘They would have been left fatherless, poor babies.’

  
Spiderman stopped in his tracks.

  
‘What? You really have children?’

  
Minho smirked at him over his shoulder.

  
‘Well, I’m a proud father of three,’ he held the pause for a few seconds and clarified. ‘Cats. Of three cats.’

  
Spiderman punched him lightly, jokingly. Minho couldn’t contain a giggle at that. Spiderman was an easy and comfortable presence, as far as he could tell.

  
Minho stopped when they approached the SKZ building. His companion didn’t seem to notice, then also stopped, when Minho didn’t follow.

  
‘This is your place?’ He asked and threw his head back to look at the top floors. ‘Isn’t it some entertainment company building?’

  
Minho didn’t look at him.

  
‘Yes, it is,’ he tried not to show how affected he was by the fact that he still haven’t recognized Minho. There were bound to be people who didn’t follow idol scene. And apparently Spiderman was one of those people.

  
It was a nice feeling, to be himself, and not Lee Know, for a change.

  
‘I’m with this agency,’ he explained vaguely.

  
Spiderman hummed again. Then he remembered that he was still wearing Minho’s hoody. He started to pull it up, but Minho caught his hands.

  
‘Wait, don’t,’ he nodded at the building entrance. ‘What if someone sees you? Just keep it.’

  
Spiderman slowly let his arms fall, one gloved hand playing with the hem of the hoody.

  
‘I can give it back some other time,’ he suggested. ‘Maybe send it to you, as to not to incriminate you any further, mister I-have-to-keep-my-reputation. Oh, I forgot the most important! What’s your name?’

  
It was not the most important, obviously, but Minho still felt his cheeks warm for some inexplicable reason.

  
‘Hi, Spidey, I’m Minho’ he said.

  
He couldn’t see behind the mask, but somehow he knew that Spidey was smiling at him.

  
‘Nice to meet you, Minho!’ He said.

  
And then he took off by shooting a string of web out of his damn hand, thus defeating the whole purpose of them trying to walk as inconspicuously as possible.

  
Minho watched him go with a stupid smile on his face.


	2. Chapter 2

Minho woke up to Felix lying on top of him like a second layer of covers.

‘Wakey-wakey…’ he drawled out in his law English voice.

Minho didn’t want to wakey-wakey, he wanted back to sleepy-sleepy. He tried to shake him off by wiggling around in his bed, but Felix only clung tighter, being a koala that he was. Minho made a frustrated noise bordering on whining.

‘Wake up, hyung!’ Felix gave up and switched to Korean. ‘It’s your fault that you feel like dying now, you shouldn’t have left last night. At least not without me!’

Minho opened his eyes at that.

Felix beamed at him too enthusiastically for such an ungodly hour. Whatever the hour was.

‘You were in bed already,’ he defended himself sleepily. He still couldn’t fully wake up, and warm and cuddly Felix wasn’t helping either. Minho stretched, feeling himself fall back into the dream he was having before.

‘What were you up to anyway?’ Felix sat up on the bed, avoiding the contagious temptation to go to sleep. ‘We didn’t hear you come back.’

Minho yawned and propped himself up on the elbows, not ready to actually sit up.

‘Ah, nothing much… Just-‘ and then it all hit him. He remembered being harassed by some assholes and then being heroically saved by none other than Spiderman. ‘Oh god!’

He rushed to get to his phone and failed to unlock it several times. Felix watched in slight amusement as he frantically pushed the camera roll icon.

Here it was, the last taken photo. Spiderman showing a peace sign and doning Minho’s own green hoodie. The picture was rather dark, but very much real.

Felix furrowed his eyebrows as Minho squeaked.

‘What-what-what?’ Not getting a reply, Felix tickled him.

Minho started squeaking even louder.

‘Nothing! Nothing!’ He swore. For some reason he didn’t want to share the details of their meeting - or even the fact of thereof - with anyone. ‘I saw a very cute cat, that’s all!’

Hyunjin peered into the room.

‘Why exactly is Minho yelling?’ He asked.

Felix shrugged, looking at Minho quizzically.

‘He saw a cat.’

‘Ah,’ Hyunjin nodded to himself. ‘That makes sense.’

And with that he left. Judging by the muffled noises, he was preparing breakfast. Which Minho wanted a piece of. So he put his phone away, but not before adding the photo to favourites so as not to delete it even accidentally.

This day during practice Minho kept making the same mistake over and over - maybe it was the lack of sleep, but he highly doubted that. He just couldn’t get the beat right, he always was too slow on one step, messing up the whole movement. After running over the step with him several times, Hyunjin and Felix seemed rather impatient.

‘You know what,’ Minho said, finally. ‘I’ll do this one later today. Don’t worry about me, let’s continue.’

‘Are you sure?’ Hyunjin asked, pushing his hair back from his face.

Minho nodded. Staying in studio after time was never a problem for him. Sure, dancing could be tiring at times, and going over one and the same routine wasn’t as exciting as, say, performing on stage - still, dancing made Minho feel like he was doing something he was supposed to do with his life. He felt as if he belonged, as if this was the only thing in his life he couldn’t (wouldn’t) doubt.

So - yeah, practicing after hours was fine. It wouldn’t be the first, or last, time, anyway.

All in all, the day was rather uneventful, so by the time Minho was left alone in the studio he was so taken in by the routine that anything out of the ordinary just slipped his mind. He ran the dance through several times and decided to catch a break. He was out of water, so taking a trip to the nearest store seemed like a logical option.

However, no sooner had he exited the studio than something brightly coloured caught his eye.

Hanging upside down outside the tenth floor window, Spiderman waved at him enthusiastically. He had the most obnoxious My Little Pony backpack in existence swinging off his back.

‘What the hell?’ Minho mouthed at him.

Spidey shrugged. He then turned round, stuck to the glass somehow (probably another one of his superpowers or whatever) and coyly knocked. He looked sheepish despite his face being fully covered.

Minho made an unimpressed face at him, but then decided against tsundering at someone whom he literally met once and genuinely thought cool. With a bit of a thummering heart, trying not to look down, he opened the window.

Spidey slithered in, the backpack and all.

‘Fancy seeing you here,’ he nonchalantly waved, passing for suave.

Minho rolled his eyes, which was actually a sign of affection in his books, and pulled him by his wrist inside the studio. Although the floor was more or less deserted at that time, he didn’t want to run into someone from staff. He could get into so much trouble for just doing a vlive at an unapproved time, chatting away with a freaking Spiderman would be like Titanic-level blow to his image of an unproblematic idol with a clear record of media scandals.

‘What are you doing here?’ He crossed his arms over his plain dark oversized T-shirt in a vain attempt to hide how sweaty he was after dancing for several hours.

Spidey mimicked him.

‘Wow, Minho, what a way to greet a friend,’ he sighed dramatically. ‘I really though we had something special going for us, you know.’

Of course Minho knew he was joking, but somehow this little comment almost made him nervous. He did have a history of shutting people down without even trying, and - for reasons he wasn’t ready to acknowledge - he really didn’t want to scare this guy off.

‘We’ll see about that,’ he said calmly. ‘But for real though, why are you here?’

‘Oh,’ Spidey hurriedly slipped his monstrosity of a backpack off one shoulder and unzipped it. ‘I brought your hoody back.’

Minho had already forgotten about it. He carefully took the item from Spidey with both hands.

‘I washed it, just in case,’ Spidey explained. ‘It smells like Pink Rose fabric softener now, hope it’s not weird.’

Minho brought the hoody to his face and only then realized what he was doing. He blinked several hundred times trying to pretend that he totally wasn’t going to sniff it like a cat. Just be normal, Minho! You can do this!

‘Thanks,’ he tied the hoody around the waist, since he still felt too hot to wear it, and then remembered that he was in fact dying from dehydration. ‘I was actually on my way to get some water, do you want to… Do you mind keeping me company? Maybe?’

Spidey rocked back and front on his heels and nodded eagerly like a puppy being taken out to see snow for the first time.

Minho giggled at that. Cute, he thought.

‘Meet me at the entrance, okay?’ He said out loud. ‘Try to look ordinary! Don’t attract any attention!’

Spidey chuckled.

‘Damn, you’re bossy’.

Before Minho could retort he took off. Apparently, leaving the same way he came in - through the window.

Minho sighed, put his discarded phone in the pocket, put on a mask, leaving it dangling from one ear for now, sighed again, for good measure, and took a lift down. Spidey was already waiting outside, doing a decent job of acting like a regular citizen.

It was dark already, so Minho didn’t wear the mask properly. The assistants at the store didn’t care anyway - they saw too many idols and trainees in various states of disarray.

For now he worried more about Spidey being recognized than himself. It was new.

‘The store is over there,’ Minho showed the direction with his chin. For a few moments they enjoyed an unexpectedly comfortable silence.

Spidey held onto straps of his backpack, and that made him look like a middle schooler. Minho chuckled softly, then wondered if it was that improbable. He knew virtually nothing about this superhero.

‘What?’ Spidey shot him a sideways glance.

Feeling the evening chill on his neck, Minho wrapped the hoody around his shoulders.

‘I was just wondering - how old are you?’

Spiderman slowed in his step.

‘I actually have no idea if I’m supposed to tell you that or not,’ he admitted, sounding incredulous. ‘Why?’

Minho shrugged.

‘I’m planning to uncover your identity, of course. I’m actually a super-villain, you didn’t know?’ He looked at Spidey with a sly green.

Spidey lightly bumped into his shoulder.

‘You must be a really lame villain then,’ he sounded amused, and his voice resonated differently because of that. Minho couldn’t put his finger on what exactly was different, but there definitely was a difference to it. He kind of liked it. ‘Your plan is sooooo not working.’

‘Excuse you,’ Minho clutched his chest in mock offense. ‘I’m an exquisite villain. Just you wait, I’ll bring your downfall in no time.’

Spidey looked at him, silent for one long charged moment, and then nodded.

‘Sorry for misjudging you,’ his tone turned playfully solemn. ‘You are quite worthy of being my arch nemesis, now I see that.’

Minho smiled at him, feeling content at that stupid remark as if he won an award. He stopped in front of the small convenience store and pulled at Spidey’s wrist to stop him too.

‘I actually thought Batman would do me the honour. Do you think you can ask him?’ Minho batted his eyelashes shamelessly at Spidey, who burst into a pretty laughter, shaking his head in disbelief.

‘I can’t with you,’ he uttered.

Minho couldn’t contain his smile anymore, so he also broke into a less pretty laughter. He knew he sounded like a cartoon character on drugs. Well, not all people got lucky to have a sunshine laughter.

‘Wait here, I’ll just buy water. Do you want something?’

Spidey shook his head no.

‘I mean, I’d never pass a chance to get free food, but…’ he gestured at his own mask. It fit so closely Minho couldn’t even see where it was supposed to go off.

He got two bottles of water and messily gulped down one of them on the spot. It instantly made him feel fifteen percent more alive.

Spidey made a strange noise at that, either impressed or really disgusted. Minho wiped his chin where water spilled.

‘What? I’m thirsty,’ he pouted, feeling a bit defensive. ‘Dancing is hard, man.’

Spidey raised his hands and waved them in a pacifying gesture.

‘I’m not saying anything!’ He shifted his weight from one foot to another, almost bouncing. ‘I get it, I also did dancing back in high school.’

Oh, so he wasn’t a school student after all. Just a dork.

‘Really?’ Minho got genuinely curious.

Spidey nodded and started walking in no particular direction - as if he couldn’t bear to stand still for more than one minute. Minho didn’t mind, so they strolled mindlessly along the street, moving away from SKZ.

‘Yep,’ Spidey said. ‘Dancing, singing, even rapping… I’m kinda extra like that, if you couldn’t tell.’

Minho glanced at his fingers tapping a rhythm at the strap of his backpack.

‘What, really? I would’ve never thought,’ He deadpanned.

Spidey scoffed.

‘I don’t dance anymore though, being a superhero takes up all my free time,’ he confessed. ‘Even when I do have time, it’s usually better to spend it on something more… you know… urgent and productive.’

A passer-by shot a confused glance at the pair of them.

‘Do you miss it?’ Minho asked, pulling his black mask over his face instead of dangling off one ear.

Spidey shrugged and kicked an imaginary pebble.

‘A bit,’ he said with a tint of melancholy to his voice. ‘I really miss writing lyrics, that’s for sure.’

Minho turned to him fully, surprised to hear that.

‘You write lyrics?’ He repeated, feeling his face turn into that surprised Pikachu meme. ‘Wow!’

Spidey scratched his neck, which seemed very pointless considering he was covered with brightly coloured spandex from head to toe.

‘Aw, stop,’ he brushed it off with a small smile audible in his voice. ‘That’s just a hobby, it’s not like I’m good at it or something.’

Minho shook his head frenetically.

‘Shut up and let me admire your many talents!’ Spidey chuckled at that. ‘No, for real, it is extremely cool!’

A group of teenagers reached them, shot a curious look at the superhero and took out their phones.

‘Shit,’ Minho fell a bit behind Spidey and put on his hoody, pulling the hood up as far as it could go.

Spidey, on the other hand, waved at the teenagers.

’Are you Spiderman?’ One of them cried out, apparently feeling bold and social.

He shot them finger guns.

‘One and only!’

The teenagers broke into giggles, loving it.

‘Can we take a picture with you?’

And so Minho found himself taking their group photo. It felt weird being the one behind camera, not the one on the screen, smiling politely and posing with complete strangers. It’s not that he didn’t like his fans, he actually loved them - as much as one can love a whole community of people.

Still, taking photos with them was a bit of an ordeal for Minho, because he couldn’t just snap a picture and go, he had to bring on his idol personality one hundred percent. After all, his fans deserved the best. And being the best took effort.

And sometimes it just felt nice to be simply Minho.

‘Thank you!’ One of the teenagers bowed a bit, remembering her manners. Her eyes flicked at Minho’s mostly covered face, but she didn’t say anything.

When they finally parted ways, Minho dragged Spidey into a quiet corner near some office building, where they could more or less hide from view.

‘Okay, what was that about?’ Spidey asked, casually letting himself be dragged.

Minho looked over his shoulder.

‘What do you mean?’

With his free hand Spidey pulled down Minho’s hood. Startled, Minho let him go.

‘Why are you so paranoid about being seen with me?’ Minho could practically hear a pout in his voice. ‘I’m a legit superhero, you know. Not some freak with a thing for dress-up.’

Spidey shifted his shoulders just the tiniest bit, but his whole stance suddenly screamed nervous.

‘I don - I would never think that!’ Minho glared at him. ‘I know you’re legit, dude, remember how we met?’

Spidey visibly relaxed. Wasn’t he supposed to be more difficult to read? For someone who wished to remain anonymous he showed too much of himself.

‘Then what?’ Spidey asked.

Minho sighed and took off the mask when his hot breath got caught in it. He looked around and noticed a bench near the entrance to the building.

‘Well, remember when I said I was with Stray Kids Entertainment?’ Spidey nodded. ‘That means I have to be really strict about my image. We can’t afford any scandals, since we are not that big, compared to other companies. Like, there is so much I can’t do… And I don’t mean just dating ban-’

‘Dating what?’ Spidey interjected.

Minho frowned a bit. He actually thought it was common knowledge, but obviously not everyone cared for idol lifestyle. He sometimes forgot his life wasn’t a given.

‘Yeah, dating ban,’ he explained. ‘We can’t date, it’s in the contract.’

Spidey seemed flabbergasted, it translated from his body language clear as day.

‘Damn, that’s… Sorry I guess?’ even his voice sounded lower.

Minho blinked at him several times, not sure how to react. It was just a minor inconvenience, something every trainee was aware of and prepared for. Most idols found ways around it anyway.

‘That’s fine?’ He said.

Spidey leaned back on the bench.

‘That doesn’t sound fine,’ he hummed to himself, as if debating whether to say the next thing. ‘That’s your personal life and freedom taken away from you, how can you be okay with it?’

Minho looked at him. Really looked at him. He was just a dude he met yesterday. Sweet, funny, talented and overall amazing, but still an almost stranger, no matter how comfortable he felt to be around.

So Minho didn’t say what he thought - that his chances to date openly in this country were slim to begin with.

‘I don’t know,’ he said, hearing himself as if from afar. ‘I just hope that at the end of the day it’s worth it.’

He was starting to get sleepy, which came as no surprise considering he didn’t get much sleep today. He yawned, gently covering his mouth with a hand.

‘Okay, you should probably head back,’ Spidey shot up, almost jumping from the bench. ‘Let’s go, I’ll walk you.’

Minho smiled at him.

‘You don’t have to, Spidey, I can make it home just fine.’

Spiderman positively beamed, Minho didn’t know how he could tell, but he saw it clearly.

‘Maybe I’m just bored,’ he said. ‘Come on, humour me, dude!’

When Minho got back to the dorms, Hyunjin was watching something on his laptop. Without looking up he waved his hand.

‘Finally, hyung,’ he said as a way of greeting. At least he said ‘hyung’. He then looked up and frowned, almost making his big round glasses slip off his nose. ‘Wait, did you have this hoody when we left?’

Minho hugged himself, faintly smelling Pink Rose on the soft fabric.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ he smiled somewhat cheekily.


	3. Chapter 3

It happened when Minho was getting home from a photoshoot.

He was the first to wrap up, and after some light friendly bulling that resulted in Felix red and almost in tears and absolutely not ready to have his photos taken, he was asked to leave already. Staff shooed him away, and Felix even pouted at him.

‘Go home, hyung,’ he pleaded. ‘Then we’ll finish sooner, and we can watch something together, what do you think?’

They were definitely behind on their regular Netflix sessions, and Minho kind of missed the quiet evenings spent on the couch in the living room, with Hyunjin loudly complaining about every possible plot hole and annoyed Felix shushing him. They had been so busy with the comeback lately, one lazy evening wouldn’t hurt.

‘Okay,’ Minho grinned. ‘But I’m picking the movie!’

Felix shuddered.

So, when it happened, it was only Minho and the driver in the car. They were stuck in a traffic jam. Minho decided not to let his make-up and styled hair go to waste and was trying to take a selfie. He looked at the camera and smiled.

And then there was an explosion. A low, rumbling sound was so loud, it didn’t even register as the sound in his ears, it was more like sound wave physically hitting his eardrums. For a second gravitation stopped, he felt suspended in the air, weightless. Then something slammed hard into his shoulder, and thank fuck he managed to hide his head in cradled arms. He was thrown around one more time, hitting his back, and one more, this time landing in a mess of limbs. Then everything came to a stop.

Minho coughed painfully, feeling his lungs squish like a balloon. Everything vaguely hurt.

‘Are you okay?’ The driver’s door opened, albeit at a weird angle. There was some rustling.

Minho tried to move, but his brain couldn’t catch up on what had just happened and wouldn’t help him coordinate his movements.

With a loud crack the door next to Minho also opened, possibly broken off. ‘Hey, can you hear me?’

A splash of colours reached to him, and carefully dragged him out. Minho blinked, still not really getting where was up and where was down, and let himself be dragged.

‘Minho?’ A familiar voice said. Then gloved hands cupped his face and that somehow helped him steady himself. Minho slowly blinked at none other that Spiderman. He couldn’t see his expression, but he looked weirdly stable and collected, like he was in his element. Something in the way he held himself reminded Minho of a big cat, some kind of leopard or shit, moving around during a hunt. He would have thought it kinda hot if his intestines weren’t trying to rearrange themselves right side up at the moment.

‘Minho!’ Spidey slapped his cheek gently. ‘Are you with me?

‘Driver Kim,’ Minho coughed instead of answering. ‘Is he…?’

Spidey glanced to the side.

‘He’s okay. Unlike a certain moron, he was wearing a seatbelt!’

Minho sighed and batted Spidey’s hands away. He let go but stayed in his personal space still.

‘You’re lucky Green Goblin wasn’t trying to blow up you specifically,’ Spidey crouched down next to him. ‘I mean, the car is beyond repair, but you seem to be intact,’ He extended a hand and Minho blinked at it again in his shocked stupor. ‘Come one, I’ll get you to the hospital.’

Minho, aching all over, shook his head.

‘I’m fine,’ he lied, maybe less successfully than usual. ‘You need to… get that… what was it?’

‘Green Goblin?’ Spidey sounded annoyed. ‘Nah, Superman is on it. I’m helping civilians. And you are a civilian so shut up and let me help you.’

Minho chuckled.

‘Again,’ he added. Spidey helped him stand up, and Minho winced from the pain that shot from his shoulder to his chest. He silently prayed to all existing gods to not have some major injury. He couldn’t afford one now, just before the comeback.

Spidey slang one of Minho’s arms over his shoulder (thankfully it was the arm that appeared to be functioning). Minho felt his arm wrap around his waist, and that’s when he heard the camera shutter go off. He could recognize that sound anywhere. It haunted him in some of his art-house nightmares.

Someone just took a picture of them.

‘Fuck, they saw us,’ He murmured. ‘Shit, my company will kill me if these photos get out.’

Spidey turned his head, looking for the source of the sound. Some people left their cars, unscathed, and indeed were pointing their phone cameras at them. Trust Koreans to start recording for sensation even in their darkest hour.

‘Too late,’ Spidey shrugged. ‘And to be honest, you’re kinda nuts for worrying about it right now. I would be more worried about your shoulder. Can you walk?’

Minho snorted. He was perfectly able to worry about up to seven things at any given time.

‘I hope someone called an ambulance,’ Spidey quietly sighed. ‘But I can, like, carry you?’

Minho giggled despite the situation.

‘Please don’t, I do have a reputation to uphold.’

Slowly, but determinately, they moved over to the side of the road, leaving behind the mangled car and several dozen nosy onlookers.

‘I should call my manager,’ Minho suddenly realized. Where was his phone? He had no idea. Probably there in the car. Damn, they will literally kill him if he doesn’t answer. Welp, nothing could be done about it now.

Spidey sighed.

‘That’s not what you’re supposed to worry about,’ he stopped in his tracks, so Minho had to stop as well. ‘Dude, you do need to sort out your priorities,’ with his free hand he flicked Minho on the forehand gently and somewhat affectionately.

Offended, Minho glared at him.

Then, out of the blue, a figure gracefully fell from the sky and landed right next to them. They were clad in same blue and red, but also had an impressive cap, and a big S on their chest gave away who it was.

‘Everything alright here?’ Superman asked, his face open and smiling. He had one of those faces that you trust immediately.

Spidey shook Minho a bit.

‘I’m just trying to take this idiot to the hospital,’ he almost complained. ‘What about Green Goblin?’

Superman waved a hand at that.

‘He’s taken care of,’ He looked between Spidey and Minho with a strange glint in his eyes. Or maybe he always looked like that. Maybe his eyes were just naturally extra shiny. Minho really had no idea, and he felt too much dull pain in various parts of his body to care.

‘Sorry to interrupt,’ he shifted his weight from one foot to another, leaning more on Spiderman. ‘But can we, like, go?’ Superman didn’t seem offended at that, he even looked amused.

‘I’m Minho, by the way. Nice to meet you,’ he added, trying to be polite in case this superhero takes offense and refuses to save him sometime in future.

Superman smiled softly, like the sunlight shifting on the grass.

‘I know,’ he said. ‘I actually follow you guys.’

Now, Minho wasn’t ready to process the fact that Superman recognized him and practically confessed to being one of his (also Felix and Hyunjin’s) fans. That was just a bit too absurd. So he blinked at him dazedly.

‘Thanks?’

Spidey meanwhile seemed to pick up on his state.

‘Yeah, we should really get going,’ he agreed. ‘I’ll get back to you, Soups, okay?’

And they waddled on.

In the E.R. Minho expected Spidey to go back to his superhero duties, but he stayed behind. It felt at the same time comforting, because he really appreciated his company, and annoying, because everyone kept discreetly taking photos every two minutes. The room itself was softly buzzing with intrigued whispers.

Minho was so, so fucked, but at this point he only cared for a soft bed and probably some painkillers, pretty please.

‘Thanks,’ he remembered as soon as said painkillers were brought to him by a blushing nurse.

Spidey cocked his head to the side.

‘Huh?’

Minho rolled his eyes, but it made him feel dizzy. He shut his eyes and blinked the dizziness away.

‘For saving me. Again,’ he clarified.

Spidey huffed, and maybe Minho was already seeing things, but he could swear Spidey’s cheeks puffed out, like a cute squirrel or something. He even fiddled with his hands, which made him look younger than he (allegedly) was.

‘That’s kinda weird how you need saving so often,’ he commented in an airy tone. ‘What did you do before me?’

Minho was starting to get sleepy. Hopefully, painkillers started working their magic. He looked at Spidey, who carefully sat himself at the edge of the bed. In his presence Minho felt so safe that even low murmuring of the staff didn’t irk him anymore.

‘Dunno,’ he answered sleepily. ‘You’re here now, right?’

He didn’t hear what Spidey replied, fast asleep.

There were no dreams, and he didn’t know how much time had passed when he woke up. Spidey was gone. Instead of him in the chair was sat his manager, looking more worried than angry.

Minho yawned and stretched languidly, but immediately hissed, feeling his shoulder fire up.

‘Oh, you’re up,’ his manager perked up, quickly typed something on his phone and turned his attention back to Minho. ‘How are you feeling?’

Minho sat up. He felt fine - bruised all over and stiff, but fine.

‘Been worse,’ he said. ‘How did you get here? I thought I lost my phone.’

Manager sighed.

‘As soon as your were admitted a word got out. Pictures of you and Spiderman are all over the internet. I rushed here while the company is trying to do some damage control,’ he explained.

Minho almost cursed, but that wouldn’t do anything, so he just shook his head slowly.

‘I’m so sorry,’ he said.

But his manager just put an arm on his shoulder, the undamaged one, and petted it softly.

‘It’s not your fault, kid,’ he comforted. ‘Now, let’s get you out of here, Hyunjin and Felix won’t believe me that you are not maimed.’

When he got to the dorms, they indeed looked sick with worry. Felix enveloped him in a tight hug as soon as Minho crossed the threshold, and Hyunjin followed quickly. Minho felt his heart warm at the realization that they genuinely cared. Then again, of course they did, they were practically family, but still. It felt nice to be cared about.

After some fussing they found themselves in Hyunjin’s room. Lying on the bed with a pack of iced pees over one shoulder and Felix on the other, Minho scrolled through Hyunjin’s phone.

‘I can’t believe you got to meet Superman,’ Hyunjin complained, laying over them like a big boneless cat. ‘I always wanted to meet him!’

Minho scoffed.

‘Such a pity Batman wasn’t there,’ Felix drawled. ‘You could have introduced us.’

Hyunjin stretched, hitting Felix in the face in the process.

‘Yeah, Lix, too bad Minho failed to hook you up with your crush,’ he said, and Felix squeaked in protest. ‘Please don’t try to pretend like you don’t have a crush on Batman.’

Minho laughed breathily, while Felix pinched Hyunjin everywhere he could reach.

‘What about Spiderman?’ Minho suddenly asked.

They stopped wiggling around and exchanged a look. For a moment they seemed to have a brief telepathic exchange. Minho didn’t like it at all.

‘The one who brought you to the hospital and waited with you till the manager arrived, that Spiderman?’ Hyunjin shrugged. ‘He must be very nice. Very friendly.’

Felix took the phone and scrolled hastily. Then he showed the screen to Minho.

‘Look, hyung! That’s from the hospital.’

Minho squinted at the photo, willing it to dissolve into pixels. In the picture Spidey was sitting at the edge of the bed, probably looking at him - it was hard to tell with the mask. Minho himself was smiling at him dazedly, looking paler than the Snow app filter. 

The caption read, «Don’t they look cute together?».

Hyunjin leaned over to look at the picture and smirked.

‘They will speculate about your relationship forever.’

Minho pushed the phone away.

‘What relationship?’ He asked nervously. ‘He just helped me. As he’s supposed to. He’s a superhero, it’s his job.’

Hyunjin hummed.

‘I know that. You know that. Does media know that?’

That was a good question. Minho never got involved in any celebrity gossip, but he had heard plenty. Sometimes his friends would get accused of most ridiculous things. Their private life would be speculated about and discussed by strangers on the internet. Unwarranted rumours would appear out of thin air, twisting their image into something else entirely.

No one actually cared if it was true as long as it was sensational.

Minho groaned and covered his face with his free hand.

‘Don’t worry, hyung,’ Felix chirped helpfully, plopping back to his side. ‘At least you got to meet a superhero! How cool is that?’

Sensing his exasperation, Hyunjin also tried for an easier tone.

‘Yeah, tell us! What’s Spiderman like?’ He put his chin in his hands, like a child getting ready for an exciting story.

Minho thought about Spidey. How he looked collected and almost buzzed with energy, vaguely resembling a tiger ready to pounce, his sheer presence stable and grounding. How he joked lightly, almost inadvertently, as if words were one of his superpowers.

‘He’s short,’ Minho said. ‘And kinda dumb.’

***

Several days later finally Minho had a meeting with the company board. There were thousands of questions to discuss and decisions to make, and by the end of the discussion his brain almost melted.

Fortunately, no one seemed to blame him for what had happened and no harsh words were thrown around.

He just went out of the building when someone literally whisked him to the side, behind the column. Surprised, Minho gasped, but immediately recognized Spidey. It was difficult not to recognize him in his signature red and blue outfit.

‘Hey,’ Spidey said in his smiling voice. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.’

Minho relaxed a bit.

‘You didn’t scare me,’ he claimed. ‘I just didn’t expect to see you. Wait, how did you know I’d be here?’

Spidey made an abrupt movement with his hands - kind of like he tried to put them in his pockets, but didn’t find any and just clasped them over his thighs.

‘Just lucky,’ he explained. ‘I was swinging by when I noticed you in one of the windows.’

Minho blinked at him vacantly.

‘And when you say «swinging» you mean?…’ he felt his eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

Spidey casually nodded.

‘Yeah, literally. It’s much faster, you know? I can give you a ride, it’s quite fun, actually.’

Minho imagined being suspended in the air high up, swinging from one string of web to another, swaying like a leaf in the wind. The though alone made him go a bit pale.

‘Oh, while I remember!’ Spidey extended a hand. ‘Do you have a new phone? Give it to me!’

A bit lost, Minho put in his hand the phone he bought the other day. It was plain, no cute phone case, generic wallpaper. 

Spidey typed something in energetically and returned the phone.

‘My number,’ he said. ‘I might not answer right away, though.’

He saved himself in the list of contacts as «Friendly Neighbourhood Spiderman». Minho immediately changed it to «Spidey».

‘Why?’ He asked, a bit confused.

In his peripheral vision Minho could see driver Kim open the car door and look around. He was supposed to pick him up already. Spidey also noticed that.

‘In case you’ll need saving again, Lee Know,’ he drawled in a low charming voice, saluted courtly and whooshed away sooner than startled Minho could ask how he came to know his stage name.

In the car he opened the contact. His fingers paused hesitantly over the blank icon. He felt surreal, choosing the appropriate first message to send to Spiderman. When did his life become so chaotic?

Finally, he sighed.

‘Where do you even keep a phone? You don’t have pockets!’ He typed and hit send. Despite the claims of answering late, Spidey responded almost immediately.

Spidey

none that you know of ;)

Lee Minho

What’s that supposed to mean

Spidey

oh shut up

is your shoulder okay?

you looked like shit last time

Minho smiled, amused despite himself.

Lee Minho

Aw, were you worried about me? Cute

But really, I’m fine, it’s just a bruising

Spidey

good to hear

at least it’s not on your face or something

like

your fans wouldve killed me

Lee Minho

Oh, right! How do you know that I’m Lee Know? You didn’t recognize me before

Spidey

I sorta did

you looked familiar but

I thought it’s just because

nvm

and dude I was tagged in so many photos with you

Lee Minho

That makes sense

Spidey

why didnt you tell me you were an idol

not just an idol

Lee fricking Know

even Soups recognized you

in retrospect I do feel dumb for not realizing sooner

Lee Minho

Don’t feel dumb because of me

Spidey

:D

Lee Minho

Feel so because it’s true

Spidey

>:(

Lee Minho

Seriously, though, I should have told you. But it just felt nice being myself with you. I didn’t want to spoil that

Spidey

hey, you can always be yourself with me!

Minho felt his cheeks warm up.

Spidey

ok now I really gotta go

talk to you later?

Lee Minho

Sure


	4. Chapter 4

Spidey

and then I sorta

hang them near the police station

in a cocoon

Lee Minho

Shut up, you just left them there? With no explanation?

Spidey

well it’s not like I could leave a note

explaining how they are bad guys

who threaten innocent people with KNIVES

and how I heroically apprehended them

wait

oh damn I shouldve left a note

Lee Minho

I wonder what the police thought

They probably let them go

Spidey

what

why would they

Lee Minho

What else can they do? You just dump people on them without any evidence or even context

Spidey

:(

but they are bad people

and why batsy can do that and I cant

Lee Minho

Who’s Batsy?

Spidey

batman i meant batman

dont tell him I called him Batsy

Lee Minho

Too late I’m sending screenshots as we speak

Spidey

now come to think of it

you actually ARE a supervillain

Lee Minho

You’ll have to catch me then ;)

Spidey

oh baby I will

Minho dropped his phone as if it burnt his hand.

‘What?’ Confused Felix looked up from his computer. He was playing something that required wearing headphones and screaming at the screen urgently, and still managed to notice Minho’s distress somehow. Almost like he possessed some inner radar for drama.

Minho just waved a hand at him, but didn’t pick up the phone. He wasn’t ready to look at the message and frankly speaking hoped he just hallucinated it.

Hyunjin entered the room, drying his hair with a towel. The phone lit up with a new message and he gave Minho a meaningful look.

‘Aren’t you going to answer?’ He asked with a sly smile.

Minho picked the phone but instead of reading the message he put it under the pillow. It was Hyunjin’s pillow, as it was Hyunjin’s room they invaded. It was the designated room for chilling for the time. They kept randomly picking one of the three bedrooms and sticking together there, and for now it was Hyunjin’s turn to be welcoming and hospitable.

‘Move,’ he said meanwhile, and Minho scooted away, leaving some space for Hyunjin to lie down.

Hyunjin plopped on the bed.

‘So,’ he turned to look at Minho and smiled his cheeky smile, the one he usually used to signal the others that they were going to eat some unhealthy food later despite their diet with the manager watching. He even added a meaningful wink.

Minho raised his eyebrows.

‘What, you want to order something?’ He asked, confused.

Hyunjin sighed exasperatedly and turned to face him fully. They were very close, so close that Minho could count his every eyelash.

‘No, dummy!’ Hyunjin put an arm under his head. ‘Tell us who you have been texting!’

Minho looked away.

‘Ah, it’s nothing,’ he stated as nonchalantly as possible.

Hyunjin puffed, seemingly annoyed.

‘Come on!’ He insisted. ‘You keep texting somebody and smiling dumbly at your phone. Of course we want to know!’

As Minho prepared to deny everything, Felix closed his laptop and slid off his headphones.

‘Yeah, hyung, we want to know,’ he agreed, as apparently he had heard everything. ‘We won’t pry if it’s private, but it’s weird that you would hide something from us. We used to tell each other everything.’

That was true. For all the time they had known each other there were no secrets between them. They knew pretty much everything about each other that there was to know - all the secrets, all the fears, all the dreams, and insecurities, and aspirations. Minho even came out to them, something he still didn’t tell even his parents. In a sense they were his real family who shared the same experience and the same path. They got each other in a way nobody else could.

Minho looked at them and felt that familiar warmth spread in his chest at knowing these people were there for him no matter what.

‘Okay,’ he sat up on the bed, getting nervous for no good reason. ‘So, remember how I got into that accident and Spiderman helped me?’

They nodded.

‘Well… We sort of have been texting… since then,’ he finished in a dropping tone.

Felix and Hyunjin exchanged a look, checking if they both heard correctly.

‘You what?’ Hyunjin deadpanned.

Minho shrugged and raised his hands in a pacifying gesture.

‘It’s just texting, it’s no big deal!’ He exclaimed. ‘I just don’t want the manager to know, because, you know… We don’t need any rumors or anything.’

Felix looked taken aback.

‘Wait, so you haven’t been texting a crush?’ He asked somewhat disappointed.

‘Unless you have?’ Hyunjin added, wiggling his eyebrows.

Minho jumped on the mattress a bit. The mere insinuation of him having a crush on the freaking Spiderman was ridiculous! Indignant, he felt his cheeks heat up at the thought.

‘No! No,’ he took a deep breath to calm down a bit. ‘Why would you even say that… No, we’re just friends, I guess? Maybe not friends just yet, but definitely on friendly terms.’

Felix still looked out of it.

‘With Spiderman,’ he nodded slowly.

Minho shrugged again. He was trying to wrap his mind around it himself. Texting Spidey was fun and then one moment he would remember he was talking to a literal superhero and just halt anxiously. He didn’t really understand how he got to be almost-kinda-sorta friends with somebody from a whole different world. Somebody who saved lives and fought crime and had incredible superpowers.

Spidey was so obviously out of his league Minho didn’t really understand why he was even texting him.

He didn’t know what else to tell them, and they didn’t press, but he knew there would be more questions later.

He reached for his phone then. There were more messages from Spidey.

Spidey

jk

hey

???

where did u go?

minhoooooooooo

Lee Minho

Yeah I’m here sorry

Felix needed something

Spidey

do you have any schedule today

Lee Minho

No, we’re finished for the day

Why?

Are you ignoring me now?

Spidey

i will tell you later

gotta go

At that he left, so Minho put his phone on the charger and went to take a shower, seeing that Felix was absorbed in his game again and wouldn’t want it soon.

He had physiotherapy early in the morning pretty much every day, but his shoulder still felt stiff and hurt if he overexerted it. Which he tried no to do, but keeping still wasn’t one of his talents. Hot water helped a bit, so he took his time just standing in the stall and blinking at the wall through the steam in a happy daze.

They had busy schedule next day, so he dried his hair diligently to make the stylists’ work easier. He then found his glasses and plopped on the bed in his room, preparing to scroll through social media and just drift off, when another message from Spidey appeared at the top of his screen.

Spidey

are you asleep yet

Lee Minho

Yes

Spidey

then wake up

and

come to the roof

!!!

Minho blinked at the screen.

Lee Minho

???

What roof

Spidey

you are at the skz building right

the one I walked you to

when we first met

Lee Minho

Wait we have a roof?

Spidey

no it has a nice little hat on top

of course it has a roof

now come here

Minho listened to the boys in the next room. Hyunjin seemed to be sleeping already. Felix probably had his headphones on. It was quiet.

Minho knew that if he really though about it he would find a reason not to go, so he decided not to think. He tip-toed out of his room - it was still quiet. He threw on a soft jacket left by Hyunjin on the hook near the door. He closed the door as gently as he could.

It turned out the dorms did have a roof. The door to it seemed closed, but when he pushed it lightly, it easily opened.

The roof was spacious and empty, with some construction elements protruding from it. Spiderman was sitting on the edge and kicking his feet like a little kid. When Minho appeared, he looked over his shoulder.

‘Finally!’ He greeted in a mockingly scolding voice. He then jumped off to the ground and bounced on the soles of his feet like a cat. ‘Can you close the door before someone finds us? I kind of broke it to be honest.’

Minho wanted to do just that, he really did, but the ground started doing this weird thing it usually did when Minho found himself anywhere higher than the third floor. It tilted. Gravity seemed to lose its hold and he felt that at any moment he would just roll off the roof.

So instead of closing the door behind himself he gripped it tighter.

Spidey cocked his head to the side a bit.

‘Hey, are you okay?’ He asked.

Minho nodded, still holding to the door like his life depended on it. In a way it did, since it was the only thing preventing him from falling.

Spidey quickly crossed the space between them.

‘Minho, what’s wrong?’ He insisted, sounding genuinely concerned.

Minho tried to smile, but something told him it wasn’t his most convincing smile.

‘I’m not a fan of heights,’ he confessed, feeling ridiculous. He must have looked really dumb at the moment.

Spiderman looked back, as if for the first time realizing that they were in fact above ground.

‘Oh,’ he said in a low voice. ‘I didn’t know. Sorry, I really didn’t know, but,’ he reached out and took Minho’s hand - the one that wasn’t gripping the heavy metal door. ‘You really have nothing to worry about.’

Minho half-chuckled half-squeaked.

‘Not when I’m here, at least,’ Spidey specified. ‘I got you, you know that? Even if by some insane turn of events you manage to fall, I’ll catch you.’

Minho looked at him, really looked at him and not at the edge of the roof. He would have given anything to see Spidey’s expression behind that mask.

‘It’s true,’ he insisted, misinterpreting Minho’s wild look. ‘Do you trust me?’

And he took a step back, their hands still connected. He took another step back and Minho stumbled forward a bit. His heart skipped a bit, but Spidey didn’t stop here.

‘Hey! Do you trust me?’ He repeated, slowly leading Minho closer to the edge by their joint hands.

And maybe it was stupid, maybe it made no sense, but as Spidey held his hand reassuringly, Minho felt the ground getting more stable with each step.

‘Yeah,’ he said, feeling a smile tug at his lips. ‘Yeah, I trust you.’

Spidey didn’t say anything, but Minho just knew that he was smiling. Somehow he could tell.

Slowly they made their way to the very edge. Here it was chilly, a light wind threw Minho’s hair in his face. He let go off Spidey’s hand and curled in on himself a bit trying to shield himself from the wind with Hyunjin’s puffy jacket. Spidey’s hand hovered in the air, ready to take his again, but after a moment he let it fall.

‘How do you like the view?’ He half-turned to the city under them and crossed his arms on the hedge, leaning on it. Minho looked at him, taking in the relaxed posture and casual tone. He looked so natural and comfortable, totally in his element.

Minho fixed his glasses and, feeling unusually courageous, looked down.

The city shimmered, full of life despite the late hour. Tiny human figures made their way in all directions, the roads illuminated by colourful lights of street banners and soft evening illumination. Cars busily droned along, looking like a child’s toys from up here. The view radiated almost palpable sense of vitality, Minho could practically feel the heat from down there despite the chilly wind.

‘Wow,’ he said. ‘It’s… neat.’

Spidey chuckled, sounding amused.

‘Yeah, it is,’ he agreed. ‘I love it up here. One of my favourite things about having superpower, probably.’

Minho glanced at him curiously.

‘What are other perks of having superpowers?’

Spidey cocked his head to the side slightly and suddenly flicked Minho on the nose.

‘Not wearing glasses anymore,’ he said in his smiling voice.

Minho rolled his eyes affectionately, filing this information in his brain.

‘You used to wear glasses?’ He couldn’t resist asking.

Spidey turned around and in one swift motion jumped on the hedge, sitting down on it comfortably. Minho nervously clutched onto his leg when he did that, a bit spooked by the sudden motion. Not like he really expected Spidey to jump off, but still. Better safe than sorry.

‘I did,’ Spidey said like he didn’t just almost give Minho heart attack. ‘I had terrible eyesight before… you know. The bite.’

‘I actually don’t know,’ Minho confessed. ‘How did you come to be Spiderman?’

Spidey looked surprised.

‘You didn’t look me up?’

Minho shrugged.

‘Did you look me up?’ He retorted.

Spidey shook his head.

‘It feels weird now that I know you personally,’ he explained.

‘Like stalking,’ agreed Minho.

They fell silent for a moment, but it was an enjoyable kind of silence. It felt like they were thinking in the same direction, so it was almost like a telepathic conversation.

‘So, do you want to tell me?’ Minho reminded, trying to get his hair out of his eyes. The wind wasn’t really strong, but rather playful.

Spidey looked straight, as if remembering, though Minho couldn’t tell for sure what he was looking at.

‘I don’t really have a cool tragic backstory,’ he started. ‘I’m just a nobody, to be honest. Just - one day I got bitten by a spider. And that’s it. A tiny spider bite. That’s how I got my powers.’

Minho frowned. Hearing Spidey call himself a nobody felt utterly wrong. Even superpower and heroic aura aside, he had been nothing but pleasure to be around since the first moment they met. He was witty, charming, full of contagious vitality. Minho couldn’t pinpoint it, but Spidey had that certain je-ne-sais-quoi about him that made you want to meet him again. No spider would give you that - you had to be born like this.

‘At first I didn’t realize what happened,’ Spidey continued. ‘I didn’t need glasses anymore, and I got so much stronger! Not, like, buff, but definitely stronger. All my reflexes sharpened, and it’s almost like everyone around me moved in slow-mo sometimes.’

Minho softly hummed to show that he was following.

‘And you didn’t find it… you know..’

‘Weird?’ Spidey chuckled sheepishly. ‘At first I thought it was puberty. What? Don’t laugh! Sometimes it hits late!’

Minho giggled at that.

‘Wow, you really are dumb,’ he smiled fondly.

Spidey shrugged.

‘I’m pretty, I don’t need to be smart,’ he said matter-of-factly, and Minho couldn’t but wonder what he looked like behind that mask. Was it genuine confidence? Or was he used to making himself the butt of the joke? Not like Minho cared much for appearance. It was just curiosity speaking.

‘So, was there a point when you realized that puberty doesn’t give people superpowers?’ He asked.

Spidey pulled up his legs and Minho only then noticed he had been holding onto him. He hurried to tear his hands away and put them on the hedge at first, but this way he didn’t feel any barrier between himself and the edge, so he crossed his arms over his chest.

‘Bats… Batman and Superman found me first,’ he said, his voice small and warm. It was a fond memory, obviously. ‘Like, can you imagine? They offered me something like apprenticeship, so I practiced with them from time to time. They taught me how best to use my powers, and how to keep my identity a secret, and just generally, you know… hero code.’

Minho blinked at him.

‘So, you are friends? With Superman and Batman? Do all superheroes have a group chat where you discuss your heroic stuff?’

Spidey jumped off the hedge to stand next to Minho. They almost touched sides, and Minho could swear he felt the heat radiate from him even through all the layers of clothing.

‘I do know some other heroes, but Soups and Bats are different,’ he threw his head back to look at the empty starless sky. ‘I would say, yeah, we are friends. Like, we hang out off work too, and they are pretty cool! They are sort of my role models? And I don’t mean their heroic personas, tons of people look up to them as Superman and Batman, but they are just so much more than that, you know?’

His voice had this vibrant quality to it that showed that he was talking to himself as much as to Minho. Like he got lost in memories a bit.

Minho felt warm at being able to witness something this private. Or maybe it was the jacket.

‘I’m sure they are,’ he agreed quietly. ‘I know its not the same, but my members - Felix and Hyunjin - are like that. People adore them because they are idols, and it makes sense, because they are damn good at it! But… they are good people above all else.’

Spidey turned to him, his face covered and unreadable.

‘Wow, Minho,’ he said in a mockingly amazed voice. ‘I didn’t know you could be soft.’

Minho scoffed and pushed him away.

‘Shut up,’ he grumbled. ‘You are soft.’

Spidey puffed out his chest and patted his stomach proudly.

‘Say this to my abs!’ He exclaimed.

Minho leveled an unimpressed look at him.

‘Didn’t you just say you were not buff?’

Unfazed, Spidey inched closer, as if trying to get Minho to touch his alleged abs.

‘Yeah, but you try fighting some bad guys on the regular,’ he flexed his arm jokingly. ‘It does wonders to your form.’

Minho glanced at the way his arm bulged a bit, not too muscled, but pleasantly fit. And then he hurriedly tore his gaze away. Stupid brain, he scolded himself mentally, now is not the time!

‘Sounds like a refreshing workout routine,’ Minho smiled cheekily. ‘Shall I try this?’

Spidey suddenly dropped his hands.

‘No!’ He exclaimed. ‘Let me stay the hot one in this relationship! And by the way you tried that already.’

Minho frowned at him, making the glasses slip down his nose.

‘First time we met,’ Spidey reminded. ‘You were picking a fight with some douchebags.’

Minho just squinted harder.

‘No, it’s not that. Did you just insinuate that I’m not hot?’

Spidey stared at him for a moment - or, at least, it looked like he did. Minho knew that making a face didn’t make him look very flattering, not to mention the fact that he was wearing old pajama bottoms, a stretched out T-shirt and a fluffy jacket that was too long for him. He had the homey glasses on, not the fashionable ones, and he was completely bare faced.

If anything, he looked the opposite of hot. And that’s exactly why insisting on it felt so fun.

‘I mean - I’m an idol, you know that, right?’ He framed his face with one hand, looking even more ridiculous at that.

Spidey sighed deeply.

‘Yeah, totally, now I see,’ he deadpanned. ‘You’re, like, so hot. Incredibly so.’

Minho burst out laughing. He somehow didn’t expect this.

‘Even your laugh is sexy,’ Spidey continued in that forcefully serious tone. ‘The way you snort is just. Wow. So hot.’

Minho really snorted then, and that made him laugh even more.

‘Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about,’ Spidey drawled out. ‘Look at you, all sexy and-‘

‘Okay, shut up!’ Minho, still fighting a fit of giggles, closed his hand over Spidey’s mouth, cutting him off. ‘I get it, oh my god.’

Spidey let him calm down and only then gently pulled his hand away from his face. With a dumb smile that wouldn’t just go away Minho blinked at him slowly. The moment’s silence felt viscous and thick like jam on a toast.

Suddenly they both heard a siren. Spidey turned on his heals and bent over the edge, scanning the view. Minho didn’t dare lean over, but he also tried to find the source of the sound.

‘I think I should go,’ Spidey said before Minho could even make out anything down there. ‘Thanks for today, Minho. See you later?’’

Minho looked at him with wide eyes.

‘Yeah, sure,’ he said, feeling a bit out of place all of a sudden. ‘See you later.’

But instead of taking off in a hurry, Spidey nodded to the door.

‘Come on, I’ll be worried if I don’t see you get back,’ he explained as if it was obvious. ‘You’re afraid of heights, I wouldn’t just leave you here.’

Minho blinked at him again.

‘Oh,’ he breathed out. ‘Okay.’

He almost jogged to the door, then turned around and waved at Spiderman, still perched on the edge of the roof.

‘Thank you, Spidey,’ he said so quiet he wasn’t even sure he heard.

In the morning he noticed a message, sent somewhere around 4 in the morning.

Spidey

we should defo repeat this!

Minho smiled at his phone, not even worried about his members noticing.

Lee Minho

I’d like that!

Spidey

same place

same time

Lee Minho

This week

It’s a plan now!


	5. Chapter 5

Chilling on the roof became their little tradition. Since it was comeback season Minho couldn’t always find time to meet up, and even when he could he was too tired to stay long. Though no matter how many times Spidey courteously suggested letting him rest, Minho wasn’t going to miss out on his chance to spend some time with him.

Their meetings were often cut short by some emergency Spidey needed to address, or just by one or both of them starting to yawn like a dying whale.

However, Minho was happy to have this friendship even like this.

Until one night Hyunjin and Felix followed him.

Come to think of it, it was bound to happen. They had been living together for so long their biological and circadian rhythms synched. Of course they noticed that he was sneaking out late at night, given he didn’t actually take any precaution to hide this fact. He only tried to be as quiet as possible.

As usual, Spidey sent him a message to indicate that he was almost there. Minho took a look at his reflexion in the window. He still spotted a heavy make-up from today’s shooting. But taking it off felt like too much work, so he just ruffled his hair to even it out and quietly made his way to the front door. Before leaving he halted and listened closely - all was quiet and peaceful. And he didn’t think much about it.

Spidey was already on the roof, lounging lazily on the sofa he somehow had got up here last week. Minho had been surprised both at his ability to carry something so heavy so high, and also at him doing that without a single soul noticing. And also at how ugly the sofa was.

‘Hey, Spidey,’ he closed the door behind himself, holding it in place with a heavy brick they found here. The door was broken for good, so they just used a brick to keep it in place, and Spidey webbed it over when they didn’t need it.

‘Hey,’ he replied with an intonation Minho didn’t recognize. ‘You look good, baby, did you have some schedule today?’

Yeah, he had this annoying habit of calling everybody baby no matter how close he was to them. Minho tried not to think about it. And not to show how it made him feel. Because it didn’t make him feel anything. Like, at all.

However, this time ignoring turned out to be harder, because as soon as he said that, Felix and Hyunjin fell in through the door. Spidey jumped to his feet faster than Minho could blink.

‘Did he just say ‘baby’?’ Felix loudly asked.

Hyunjin caught himself before falling face down to the ground.

‘Damn right he said that!’ Hyunjin loudly proclaimed.

‘Oh my god!’ Minho rushed up to them. ‘What the hell are you doing here?!’

Felix looked at him with his big innocent eyes, but Hyunjin just straightened his back, towering over both of them.

‘No,’ he retorted. ‘What are YOU doing here?’ He shifted his gaze to the confused Spidey. ‘And with Spiderman! Busted!’

Minho nervously glanced over his shoulder to Spidey.

‘Look,’ he started not sure how to continue. Hyunjin, however, ignored him. Holding Felix by the hand he marched over to Spidey and stared him down. It was one of his to-go emotions for photoshoots, so he could do that quite impressively.

‘So, Spiderman, nice to meet you,’ he said in a serious voice that sounded just a tad too dramatic from his lips. ‘I’m Hwang Hyunjin. This is Lee Felix.’

Felix bowed. Minho was mad at them for barging in like this, but that was just adorable. Even completely lost Felix never forgot his manners. He was just sweet like that.

‘Nice to meet you too!’ Spidey exclaimed and also bowed. He sounded hyped, like he was genuinely glad to meet them. ‘Minho talks about you guys all the time!’

Felix and Hyunjin turned to Minho with the same bewildered expression. He just blinked at them impassively.

‘He does?’ Felix asked incredulously.

Spidey shuffled with his toe and rubbed his neck.

‘Well, not all the time,’ he corrected. ‘But he does acknowledge your existence, and with him it’s pretty much the same, isn’t it?’

Felix mouthed a ‘wow’ at Minho and Hyunjin looked impressed as well.

‘You make me sound like a psychopath,’ Minho complained.

At the same time Hyunjin noted, ‘You know him so well already.’

Minho just threw his hands up in a mix of annoyance and defeat.

‘So,’ Hyunjin turned back to Spiderman resuming his intimidating posture. ‘I must ask. What are your intentions with our hyung?’

Spidey made a noise that could be a cough, and Minho covered his face with his hands and growled loudly. The heat that pulled up in his face due to embarrassment was enough to fry a small egg. He was certainly going to kill Hyunjin later, but for now he had to salvage the situation.

‘Yah, kids, behave!’ He tugged on the sleeve of Felix’s T-shirt, thus moving both of them, still clinging to each other. ‘We’re just friends! Shame on you!’

He glanced at Spidey from the corner of his eye, trying to gauge his reaction. Sometimes it was surprisingly easy, but sometimes - like now - he was a closed book in a foreign language. He just stood there and his body language betrayed no emotion.

‘Still cool!’ Felix shrugged, latching onto Minho and beaming at Spiderman. ‘Can we also be friends? I will follow you on Instagram, if that’s okay?’

Minho hugged him protectively, suddenly noticing that it was chilly up here and Felix was only wearing his oversized T-shirt.

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ he quietly said. ‘If you do, it can be misinterpreted.’

Hyunjin brushed his hair away from his face. His hair was even longer than Minho’s and he usually pinned it up with hair clips, but they had apparently been in a hurry to go after him.

‘He can just follow a bunch of superheroes,’ Hyunjin suggested. ‘It’s all an excuse to follow Batman anyway. We can all do that, then it would be less suspicious.’

Felix opened his mouth to object, but Spiderman beat him to it.

‘Well, if you start following Batsy he’ll lose his shit,’ he said casually. ‘He actually likes your music. I’m pretty sure he even bought a few albums.’

At that Felix just bat his eyelashes, completely lost for words. He looked like he was about to cry.

‘What?’ He said in English. ‘No way!’

Spidey seemed more at ease now. Something in his posture loosened up, he was back to his collected and effortlessly graceful self. Minho also calmed down because of it. Maybe the whole situation wasn’t as awkward, maybe he was just making it awkward. No big deal, right? Friends sometimes meet each other’s friends. That’s how society works.

‘Batman knows me?’ Felix still tried to make sense of this new world where his crush-slash-hero was aware of his existence.

Spidey nodded enthusiastically.

‘He sure does!’ He answered in English. ‘I don’t know if you’re his favourite member, but believe me, man, he knows.’

Felix full-on squeaked, going from his regular deep voice to ultrasonic. Minho could never get used to the way his voice encompassed an insane range starting with demon-like growling to soft singing and dolphin sounds.

While Felix was having his personal breakdown, Minho felt like joining him, though for a different reason. Spidey’s voice sounded so different when he spoke English, and of course he had to have the perfect pronunciation and the most attractive intonation. Figures.

‘I think you just broke Felix,’ Hyunjin commented, making no attempt to calm the poor blushing Felix down. ‘And you’ve been talking for less than a minute.’ He glared at Spiderman and added, his words clashing with his stern expression. ‘Impressive. I like you already.’

Spidey barked a laugh at that, not offended a bit.

‘Thanks,’ he said and the smile was back in his voice. ‘You’re not so bad yourself.’

Hyunjin finally cracked a smile too, which changed his face completely. The cold exterior melted like a layer of ice under warm spring sun. Minho always thought he had a most lovely smile. It made him look vulnerable and real, and so, so kind.

‘We can all follow each other,’ Hyunjin decided. ‘This way we can create a group chat, and one more without Minho in it so we can talk shit about him.’

Minho snapped back to reality, having been hypnotized for a bit by his friends befriending Spiderman. That was wild, but at the same time it was to be expected, so he didn’t know where he stood here.

‘Hey,’ he punched Hyunjin in the shoulder, barely there, but the brat still made a whole show of nursing his imaginary bruising. ‘Spidey is my friend! Go and make your own cool friends.’

Felix, successfully coming to terms with reality, perked up at that.

‘Spidey?’ He asked. ‘Or, so you guys have nicknames for each other? I see, I see.’

Minho didn’t like his tone at all, but before he could do more than squint at Felix apprehensively, Spidey hummed happily.

‘Oh, right!’ He put his hands on his hips. ‘Why don’t I have a nickname for you, Minho?’

Minho gave him an unimpressed look, trying to convey how much he was not having it.

‘Because you don’t have a death wish?’ He asked innocently. ‘I will not hesitate to physically fight you if you try to come up with one.’

Spidey bounced on his feet, as if ready to jump into a fight. Hopefully he wasn’t actually going to do it, but the way he practically vibrated on the spot made Minho feel uneasy.

‘Oh, really?’ He stepped closer, and Minho’s unease doubled. ‘You will take me on, idol boy?’

Not willing to accept the obvious fact that Spiderman was a legitimate superhero possessing inhuman abilities, superstrength included, Minho arched his eyebrows.

‘And what if I will?’

Someone cleared their throat. They both turned their heads and met two conspiratorial smiles.

‘Okay, that’s our cue to leave,’ Felix said. He waved a hand at Spidey and hugged himself against the chilly wind.

Hyunjin nodded, then pointed a finger at Spiderman.

‘Expect a notification, and make sure to follow back!’ He instructed. ‘You’d better not leave me hanging, okay?’

Spidey waved at the two of them enthusiastically, like a small kid.

‘Bye-bye, new friends!’ He exclaimed and kept waving until they left, failing to properly close the door behind themselves.

For a few seconds it was quiet, then Spidey rolled his head over one shoulder to look at Minho.

‘So, it went rather well.’

Minho just sighed and fell on the ugly sofa. Spidey followed, plopping down so close that they knees almost touched.

‘Sorry about that,’ Minho said. ‘I really didn’t expect them to just turn up like this, and all they said about Instagram - just ignore it…’

‘Why, they seem fun,’ Spidey cut him off. ‘And I don’t mind following them. I mean, who would be against extra pretty faces on the timeline, right?’

He caught Minho’s perplexed look and shifted on the sofa so that he was facing him.

‘i mean, it’s not like we have to become close friends all of a sudden. And, besides, now that I know your friends it feels more real, you know? Our… friendship.’

Minho couldn’t stop himself from asking.

‘You think we are friends?’

As soon as the words left his mouth he regretted asking, but it was too late. Spidey’s tone became uncertain.

‘I… yes, I do. You don’t?’ He asked.

Minho nodded eagerly.

‘I also do!’ He stumbled over his words. ‘I think of you as a friend.’

‘Good,’ Spidey said.

‘Good,’ Minho echoed.

The silence that followed felt unexplainably hot. Despite the ever-present wind, Minho could feel the warmth spread out from his chest to his fingertips and toes. Like this moment was a blanket, and they were wrapped up in it. Like nothing could get them here, under this spell. 

Suddenly Spidey grasped something on his side and drew his phone seemingly out of thin air. Minho automatically leaned over his shoulder to look at the screen, then caught himself and averted his gaze. Maybe they were friends, but Spidey had his anonymity to worry about. However, Spidey barked out a laughter and showed the phone to him.

‘Damn, they were not kidding!’ He smirked under the mask.

Minho saw his Instagram account for the first time, and before proceeding to the actual content he glanced at the profile picture and the username. Spiderman_official had a selfie of Spidey V-posing while sitting on top of some building, the view of the city underneath blurry but still recognizable. The account was verified.

Two more verified accounts just followed him - they were, no surprise, Hyunjin and Felix.

Minho rolled his eyes, but Spidey immediately followed back and then turned the screen away secretively.

‘Don’t tell me they already added you to a group chat,’ he asked, visibly displeased.

Spidey turned to him for a second and he must have forgotten that he was wearing a mask, because he definitely beamed at Minho. Minho still caught it though.

‘Okay, I won’t tell you that!’ He sing-sang. ‘You’ll just see for yourself when you open insta. And follow me back!’

Minho scoffed and reached for his phone. To show his utter indignation he moved a bit and threw his legs over Spidey’s, who didn’t complain. He didn’t even seem to pay much attention to it.

Ignoring a flow of other notifications, Minho first followed Spidey back. Maybe he spent a minute or so scrolling though his pictures - mostly selfies, but taken from almost impossible angles, in all the crazy places you would expect to see Spiderman, tops of buildings, over the bridges, police stations. Then Minho finally clicked on dm’s, and the first chat that popped up was the one with the four of them.

Spiderman_Official

but we are friends now!!!

Lixie00

well we’re not that close so

pay for your album like everyone else!!

Spiderman_Official

you guys are mean >:(

Hyun_jinnie

Business is Business Spider

Spiderman_Official

I wanted to give it as a present…

to Batman

and Superman

Lixie00

come to think of it!!!

why not make an exception right???

Hyun_jinnie

Felix you’re Weak

Spiderman_Official

hes whipped

Lixie00

I’m literally?? trying to help you?? get stuff for free??

Why are you bullying me :(

Minho grumbled and stared at Spidey accusingly.

‘It’s been several minutes and you’re already in on our jokes,’ he whined.

Spidey didn’t answer. At least out-loud.

Spiderman_Official

hey felix minho said youre a joke

Minho hit him on the shoulder, but Spidey just snorted and waved him off, not taking his eyes from the screen and his treacherous fingers from the keypad.

Lixie00

wow hyung that shit hurted

I though I was your favourite

Hyun_jinnie

Wait I thought I was his favourite?? The betrayal! Gasp

Spiderman_Official

sorry guys

hereby I usurp the title of minho’s favourite

Minho sighed deeply.

LeeKnow

boldof you to assume I even like any of you

Soonie Doongie Dori are my favourites

Lixie00

T-T

Hyun_jinnie

Meanho strikes back

‘Who’s Soonie, Doongie and Dori?’ Spidey changed his position, putting his chin in one hand, elbow propped on the sofa’s back. Minho expected his legs to slide and made a movement to put them on the ground, but Spidey hugged them with his other hand, keeping Minho in place. ‘Do I have to duel them to be the favourite?’

Minho giggled, imagining the fight between Spiderman and his three cats.

‘It won’t help,’ he said with a mock look of pity, batting his eyelashes at Spidey. ‘You see, Soonie, Doongie and Dori are my cats, so they win by definition. You can’t compete with them, honey.’

Spidey chocked out a laughter.

‘I see how it is,’ he said. ‘Do you have any pictures? I need to gather intel to overthrow them when you least expect it.’

Minho wanted to hide his smile so as not to look too eager and desperate, but he couldn’t help it. Spidey was just so funny, and nice, and genuine, and quick-witted, and overall amazing, that Minho felt his eyes disappear into crescents from how hard he was smiling.

‘Sure,’ he scooted closer and opened his gallery. ‘Brace yourself for a three-hour lecture on my cats.’

Spidey was so hot against his side, practically a (super)human heater. Minho almost started to get sleepy just from the sheer coziness of having him so close. He slowly blinked at Spidey’s profile, but he was looking intently at Minho’s phone with the first of three hundred pictures open.

‘Tell me when you are bored,’ Minho warned him.

Spidey smiled. Minho could hear it in his voice when he replied.

‘I can never get bored with you.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all! Thank you SO MUCH for reading! It means a world to me :D Thank you for kudos and CoMMEnTS!! I'm not good at replying so just know I appreciated the hell out of each comment :)
> 
> Tell me what you think or just come to scream at me on Twitter!! @blzmchkArthur


	6. Chapter 6

Hyunjin got this brilliant idea when Felix was busy mc-ing a show they both followed lazily on the telly, turning the sound down when he was off-screen and back up whenever he appeared, smiling brightly, albeit a bit awkwardly. He still felt his Korean lacking, but truth be told Felix was a devoted perfectionist, so no matter how many times both of them tried to persuade the poor thing that his Korean was better than theirs in some respects, he wouldn’t believe, not really.

Without tearing his gaze of the screen, Hyunjin snapped his fingers triumphantly and proclaimed:

‘I got this brilliant idea.’

Minho waited a few bits, but Hyunjin apparently wanted an explicit show of interest, so he turned to him and raised his eyebrows inquiringly.

‘Do share,’ he prompted.

Hyunjin waited till Felix finished talking and the camera zoomed to the artists performing on stage. Only then did he roll his shoulders comfortably, relaxed back into the sofa they were lounging on, and turned to face Minho.

‘Let’s hook up our Felix with Batman,’ he said casually. ‘Now that you’re besties with Spiderman it would be easy.’

Minho furrowed his eyebrows and just blinked at him, thinking.

The idea was rather absurd, but not bad. They knew for a fact that Felix had a soft spot for Batman - he looked up to the broody masked hero even back in Australia, and he must have been at least part of the reason Felix dared to move to Korea at all. He had some cute picture as his lockscreen just to throw off the fansites, but his gallery hid among professionally required selcas quite a few pictures of Batman. He had a stuffed Batman toy on his bed which he hugged to sleep, and a whole parade of black clothes inspired by Batman. His YouTube dashboard was drowning in Batman fancams, interviews with people whom he had saved and general Batman-inspired creative content.

So it was a safe bet to say that Felix at least liked Batman. However, Minho and Hyunjin uncovered in a spree of friendly teasing that Felix tended to blush deeply when Batman was mentioned and overall got weirdly defensive when the topic of this particular superhero came up. After some time they came to the conclusion that Felix had a legitimate crush. Felix denied this, as expected, but the way he would start stuttering and avoid eye contact was telling.

But now Spidey and his surprising revelation showed the whole situation in a new light. If Batman was, as he put it, a fan of theirs… could there be a chance of reciprocation?

‘If they do somehow start dating,’ Minho though out loud. ‘It would be a complete train wreck of a PR disaster.’

Hyunjin shrugged.

‘You don’t know that, hyung, they might figure out a way to date secretly. I mean, other idols do that all the time.’

Minho decided not to draw his attention to the fact that other idols didn’t date world-class superheroes. Even when said idols started seeing each other, some noisy dispatch would always find out sooner or later - and idols ran in the same social circles. What to say of such a bizarre couple of individuals as Felix and Batman. They could as well be living on different planets! Yes, by an unpredictable turn of events their worlds came closer to each other, so close they could actually meet, but how long can one keep breaching this gap?

At that point Minho realized he wasn’t thinking about Felix as much as about his and Spidey’s unlikely friendship, so he stopped thinking. It never did him any good anyway.

‘And even if they don’t kiss kiss fall in love,’ Hyunjin mused. ‘At least they’ll meet, which is a win-win for both parties.’

Minho had to admit he was right.

A commercial came on, so he went to take some water from the fridge. There he reached for his phone absentmindedly, as one does. And then he opened the chat with Spidey. As one does. He was always on Minho’s mind these days somehow.

Lee Minho

are you busy?

He didn’t expect to get a reply immediately, so he made to put the phone back in the pocket of his pajama pants, but a message popped up.

Spidey

no!!!

im actually so bored rn

why do you need smthing

do you need saving??

Minho chuckled.

Lee Minho

it looks like it’s you who needs saving

from boredom

don’t worry I gotchu

Spidey

my hero <3

what’s popping

Lee Minho

so

you know batman right

Spidey

…yes.

Lee Minho

and he likes Felix

and I know Felix

Spidey

and felix likes batsy

whom i know

full circle!!!

Minho just pursed his lips looking at the screen, waiting for the penny to drop. He tapped the floor with his toe. Finally it dawned on Spidey.

Spidey

oh shit

oh my god

Minho grinned amusedly. He could hear Spidey’s frantic screams in his head. What a cutie.

Spidey

do you think???

Lee Minho

Hyunjinnie thinks

and I think too

like why not?

I mean obviously I’m not assuming Batsy’s sexuality

and Felix’s sexuality

and it’s all hypothetical

Spidey

totally hypothetical

Lee Minho

right

but we can just arrange for them to meet

and hope for the best

Spidey

i’ve never played a matchmaker

or a friendmaker

Lee Minho

you know you don’t have to!!

Spidey

nah i gotta

i need to see batsy gay panic on main

Lee Minho

… does it mean that?

Batman is

you know

interested

Spidey

wouldn’t you like to know baby

And as if it was a magic word, Minho got distracted and didn’t press further. And anyway Hyunjin called for him to join, because the commercial had already ended. So he just laid on the sofa, legs intertwined with Hyunjin’s lanky ones, and took a few photos of the screen to upload on social media as a proof that they were indeed watching and supporting their maknae. Fans reacted at once, flooding his notifications, and he chatted with them idly, flicking through numerous messages, looking for something that sparked his curiosity enough to form a coherent response.

‘So, I give the operation Batlix the green light,’ Hyunjin suddenly said.

Minho looked up and blinked out of his sos-induced daze.

‘I’m sorry?’ He asked politely, still thinking about one of the fan questions.

Hyunjin flicked his fingers at him impatiently.

‘Batlix like in Batman and Felix, how didn’t you get this?’ He sat straighter. ‘Operation Batlix. So, what did Spider say? Is he in?’

Minho lowered the phone.

‘How do you know we discussed it?’ He frowned at Hyunjin.

Hyunjin just smiled, and even though it was a mockingly overboard sweet smile, Minho couldn’t get angry, because Hyunjin actually was sweet, maybe without really realizing it.

‘Come on, hyung,’ he wiggled his eyebrows. ‘You two are always chatting. Like all the time. I wonder what’s up with that?’

Minho smiled back defiantly, refusing to be embarrassed.

‘We sure do,’ he cocked his head. ‘What, are you jealous?’

But Hyunjin didn’t take the bait. His smile became somewhat calmer, more grounded. Unguarded.

‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m just glad you’re happy.’

And here was this sweet gentle part of him that Minho cherished so much. He wouldn’t ever admit it, of course. Outwardly he just chuckled noncommittally and reached out to ruffle Hyunjin’s hair.

‘Are you going to meet up?’ Hyunjin asked, not shying away from the touch. ‘We can sort out the details together.’

Minho hummed, trying to convey that he will ask later.

On screen Felix switched to his deep English voice and his cohosts visibly flinched. Minho and Hyunjin shared an amused look. It never failed to amaze them how Lixie could look like a literal fairy and at the same time talk like a demon from Hell. Minho wondered briefly if his demon voice was deeper than Batman’s, and then he imagined them having a conversation solely in low, dark, noir-film-like remarks. Either Batlix was a catastrophe, or a match made in heaven - and there was only one way to find out.

However, they didn’t hang out before next week, when the group’s crazy comeback schedule started to gradually die down. If Minho could, he would have squeezed the brief friendly rendez-vous with Spidey in, but most of the time it was physically impossible. When they got home late in the night he sometimes lacked energy even to remove the make up, let alone drag his ass to the roof.

They chatted through the week continuously, though, and from time to time Spidey threw in suspicious remarks - he was low-key up to something. Minho was curious, of course, but didn’t have it in himself to pry. And Spidey was buzzing with desire to share whatever his was planning anyway, Minho could read his eagerness and anticipation in brief messages full of typos.

So, when they could finally meet, Minho jumped at the opportunity to spend some quality time with Spidey. He didn’t invite Hyunjin - however brilliant his plan was, it could wait. Instead he did something he had been dreaming about since the shooting of the first mv in this comeback.

When he got to the roof it was already close to midnight. Spidey was lounging on the ugly sofa (it somehow got only uglier in a week, even shabbier and duller than before), turning his phone in his hands over and over. He looked almost nervous.

‘Hey!’ He looked up when Minho greeted him and caught the pizza box Minho dropped on him with his amazing spider-reflexes. ‘Long time no see, Spidey-boy!’

For a split second Minho was ready to bend over and hug him. His body acted first, the mind caught on later. It felt so natural, so right… but they never hugged before, and Minho stopped himself. What if he made things awkward? Spidey seemed nervous already, he didn’t want to spook him more.

So he just smiled and plopped down next to Spidey, but the desire to touch him rumbled inside, like a distressed dog that sniffed out a cat, but didn’t get to chase it.

‘You brought pizza,’ Spidey said stupefied. It was a poor case of observation, since the pizza was already in his lap, delicious smell and all.

Minho also brought a bottle of zero coke, which he put on the ground next to them.

‘I’ve been dreaming about it forever,’ he patted the box. ‘We were on a healthy diet for the comeback, it’s terrible.’

Spidey stopped fidgeting with his phone and opened the box instead. He was apparently satisfied with the inspection because he hummed contently.

‘Can’t relate,’ he said absent-mindedly. ‘I eat literally everything - it has to do with my powers. Different metabolism and all that. I’m almost always hungry, though I eat a lot. Like - you wouldn’t believe how much I actually have to eat.’

Minho sized him up discreetly. He didn’t look like someone who consumed an awful lot of food.

‘Then you are welcome,’ he shrugged. ‘Enjoy this amazing pizza.’

‘But,’ Spidey looked at him, his expression probably apologetic. ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea. I mean, taking off the mask…’

Minho took him by the shoulders, cutting off whatever dumb sentence he was going to say. He was so warm under Minho’s hands, a stark contrast against the chilly wind.

‘You don’t need to disclose your identity, Spidey,’ Minho said and rolled his eyes. And then he pushed on one of his shoulders and pulled the other. Spidey docilely turned over following his directions, until he turned completely on the sofa, sitting with his back to Minho, the pizza box still on his lap.

‘There,’ Minho then mirrored his pose. ‘Now you can take it off or at least roll it up. I can’t see your face. Is it okay?’

They were sitting close, backs pressed to each other. Minho was facing the door, whereas Spidey was having a front row seat to the city view. Through the layers of clothing, through a t-shirt and a sweater, and whatever fabric Spidey’s suit was made of, Minho still could feel Spidey’s warmth seep unto his skin. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, but it wasn’t an easy one to absorb either.

He heard (and felt) Spidey open the box (his arms moved, and his posture shifted) and then offer it to Minho (he turned around a bit, shifting, and leaned on Minho).

‘Now I feel dumb,’ he muttered, his voice somehow distant now that he was facing away. ‘It was kinda on the nose.’

Minho shrugged (his shoulder blades moved against Spidey’s back, so close his sweaterrode up, caught in-between the two of them).

‘Its difficult, since it makes you rely on me,’ he carefully took the largest slice of pizza. ‘You have to trust me not to turn around and sneak a peek.’

Spidey chose a slice for himself then dropped the box on the floor so that they both could reach it. Minho felt his hands fly up to his face and roll up the mask. Not all the way, he though, just enough to comfortably devour some pizza.

‘’s not difficult at all,’ he said, his mouth full. ‘Of course I trust you, baby.’

Minho chocked and hurriedly reached for the bottle. Spidey started to turn, but remembered himself.

‘Are you okay?’ He asked. Minho hummed affirmatively and gulped down enough coke to wash down the awkward lump in his throat. The heat of Spidey’s back didn’t help much, though.

Luckily for him, after that Spidey fell quiet, so they both were able to enjoy the food in comfortable silence. He wasn’t joking about his appetite, as he casually scarfed down most of the pizza. Minho was somewhat impressed.

‘Ah, that was amazing,’ Minho declared when the pizza was finished. ‘All this extra time I will have to spend in the gym now is totally worth it.’

Spidey rolled his head so that it was laying partially on Minho’s shoulder. It felt weirdly familiar.

‘You really will do that?’ He asked. ‘Just because of a few slices of pizza?’

Minho laughed, amused at his naivety.

‘Not all of us can magically stay in shape,’ he said pointedly.

Spidey made a noise of agreement.

‘So next time I shouldn’t let you eat fast food?’ He clarified, but then just shook his head, still on Minho’s shoulder. ‘Welp, I don’t think I will stop you - if it makes you happy, anyway. Who am I to say no to food?’

Minho closed his eyes, feeling pleasantly full, warm and tired after a long day. Spidey’s voice could come off as a lullaby. He had been really looking forward to this meeting, but now falling asleep right then and there didn’t seem like a very bad idea. He heard Spidey rambling about something. He asked about Minho’s day and he just muttered a sleepy ‘it was fine’. He hoped it sounded appropriate, because he sleepy brain didn’t supply any more coherent reply.

But then Spidey moved away and Minho almost fell over - he hadn’t realized he was leaning on Spidey with his full weight at this point. He immediately felt uncomfortably cold at the loss of contact.

‘What?’ He almost turned to glare at him, then remembered that Spidey was not fully dressed, so to speak.

However, he must have put the mask back at some point, because he put a hand of Minho’s shoulder and turned him around. His face was unreadable, but posture seemed unsure.

‘Sorry, Minho, do you want to go back? You’re probably tired…’ he said.

Spidey made to move away, but Minho gripped his hands, not letting him go. He was sleepy, so his next words were uttered without much intervention from the brain.

‘Wait, I wan’t to stay with you!’ Spidey froze, which was sort of what Minho wanted him to do, so - success. ‘I am tired, but I also missed you - can we hang out more? I promise I won’t fall asleep.’

Minho looked at him imploringly, trying to blink the sleep away, and even pouted for effect. Spidey looked unsure. Or maybe annoyed - apparently Minho lost the ability to decipher his inner state when he was extra tired.

‘Come on,’ he insistently tugged at Spidey’s hands and together they stood up. Still grasping Spidey’s wrist, Minho dragged him to the edge of the roof. Here the wind was more persistent, and the buzz of the city resonated stronger. Though they barely made five steps, it felt like they crossed the line from a quiet alleyway into a busy street.

Spidey followed him obediently, asking no questions.

‘Much better,’ Minho decided, trying not to cringe from how uncomfortably far away the ground was. Sure, chilling on this roof helped him to overcome most of his irrational fear, but it didn’t magically make him a fan of heights.

‘I actually-’ Spidey started and coughed, visibly embarrassed. ‘Erm…’

Minho tore his gaze away from the flickering lights underneath.

‘I wanted to show you som- Okay, you know what, nevermind!’ Spidey spluttered, and now only blind could miss his nervousness. He turned his face away as if trying to hide from Minho, even though his masked face betrayed nothing.

Minho suddenly noticed that he was still holding his wrist and tugged at it gently.

‘What? Just tell me,’ he asked, curious. Originally he wasn’t going to pry, but the bit where Spidey was going to show something to him personally sparked his interest.

When he didn’t answer, Minho pulled at his hand again, less gently this time.

‘Teeeeeeel meeeee,’ he whined and with his free hand poked at Spidey’s shoulder. When he raised his head Minho proceeded to poke at his cheek - at least where he expected his cheek to be. It felt surprisingly soft and squishy, but Spidey swayed his hand away before Minho could explore more.

‘Oh my god, fine! Okay!’ He exclaimed, pretending to sound annoyed. He wasn’t annoyed, not really. ‘It’s nothing, I just…’

He suddenly jerked his hand away from Minho and retrieved his phone and this time a knot of earpiece.

‘Remember how I told you that I used to write songs,’ he said, untangling the wires and not looking at Minho. ‘And you encouraged me to start writing again?’

Minho didn’t remember encouraging him. As far as he could tell, he only stared at him awe-struck when he announced that on top of being a superhero, an amazing human being and all that he also could literally create art. That was an unexpected, but weirdly fitting piece of information. And Minho hardly even said anything, he just gawked, probably. But he nodded nevertheless.

‘Well, I… I dunno, I kept thinking about it. How it used to feel so good… Like, yes, perfecting the song may be a pain in the ass, but this moment of pure creation, when you just know what to do, like it’s being laid out for you - nothing can compare to that,’ Spidey probably wasn’t looking at him, rather through him, and his voice didn’t sound like he was smiling with his face, but there was different kind of light to it. ‘After taking to you I realized I really missed it. So it’s been on my mind for some time, and last week I decided to try something, just for the sake of it. So…’

He looked at his phone and then at Minho. The previous nervousness was gone - and Minho didn’t know who did it, himself or merely talking about music, but there was this spark he liked in Spidey, this hint of amusement, like he knew a secret nobody else knew and it was a fun one.

‘Can I hear it?’ Minho beat him to it. He felt a shy smile appear on his face and usually he would school his face into a neutral expression, because it wasn’t his prettiest smile, it wasn’t the one he would address to his fans or conjure for a photoshoot. But it was for Spidey, so he didn’t mind. Spidey was going to share something real with him, and Minho wanted to do the same for him, to be as real as he could.

Spidey gave him both ends of the earpiece and quickly opened something on his phone. He hesitated for a fraction of a second before giving his phone over. Not like he had doubts, but more like preparing for a dive.

Minho looked at the screen - the name of the song was «Sunshine», and the artist’s name was listed as «J.One». He didn’t know what to expect, so he just pressed play.

Even though he didn’t expect anything, he wasn’t prepared for what came next.

He first noticed the voice. His speaking voice was certainly pleasant to hear, but his singing voice… was magical. It was everything Minho loved - smooth, light and broad, like the clear stream of a waterfall, soothing your everyday worries. And when he rapped he was a raging, powerful current. You couldn’t help but be swept away.

The melody was constructed skillfully - elegant, lovely and memorable, not too flashy, just the right side of sweet. It was one of those melodies you would hum for days without getting tired, one of those songs you wanted to carry with you.

Even the lyrics were perfect. Minho skipped the first few lines, too taken aback by the overall amazingness of the song, but he quickly caught on. The lyrics were perfect as far as he was the judge, smart in that effortless way only people with a touch of genius could manage.

Minho wasn’t ready for the song to be so good and it honestly felt overwhelming. The polite words of encouragement he had prepared died on his lips. They were not worthy of this song.

After the bit faded away abruptly the chaotic sounds of the night seemed empty. Minho took out the earpieces, but kept holding the phone in his hands, like parting with it would deprive him of the song. He stared at the screen dazedly. «Sunshine».

Spidey cleared his throat.

‘So, uh,’ He tentatively reached for his phone, but didn’t take it from Minho. They were stood holding it together, like two swimmers sharing a floater. ‘What do you think?’

He voice didn’t sound shy, but only because he made it so. He was just cute like that.

Minho opened his mouth, breathed in and closed it. Putting what he felt into words turned out to be not so easy.

Spidey shuffled.

‘Oh,’ he said, tone dropping. ‘That bad?’

Minho hurried to take his hand.

‘What? No!’ He cried out, indignant. ‘How can you even think…’

He drew a long shaky breath, collecting his thoughts.

‘You should have warned me,’ he said, finally. ‘You described it like you used to just mess around with garage band, you didn’t say you were professional! Jesus, Spidey, you can’t just drop something this good on people and expect them to speak coherently! How do you even write such an amazing song in a week?’

‘I actually wrote it in half an hour tops,’ Spidey muttered under his breath.

Minho could only shake his head unbelievingly. What an impossible creation he was.

‘So,’ Spidey allowed himself to sound shy this time. ‘Do you like it?’

Minho didn’t waste a second, immediately nodding.

‘I love it,’ he said, completely genuine. He squeezed Spidey’s gloved hand, trying to convey non-verbally too how much he loved the song.

Spidey laughed, a clear and ringing sound, satisfied like a child who got a new toy.

‘Okay then,’ he said with a wide smile in his voice. ‘It was a test and you passed, you can continue being my friend.’

At this unexpected joke Minho barked a high-pitched laughter. He felt strangely vulnerable and open, even though he didn’t do anything. It was Spidey who had to feel like this, but judging by his nonchalant behavior he was perfectly in his element. Maybe he was - it was obviously not the first time he showed someone his song. Maybe Minho wasn’t supposed to feel like he was gifted something fragile and precious.

‘You really are amazing,’ Minho said softly before he could chicken out and close off again. He usually kept such remarks to himself, but now and then he felt brave enough to actually say it. ‘I mean it, Spidey.’

He didn’t know what was his expression under that mask, but he hoped it was a happy one. After several beats of charged silence, Spidey squeezed his hand back.

‘Thank you, Minho,’ he said quietly.

When Minho eventually got to bed that night (it was closer to morning, actually) he was half asleep, but first he typed out on his phone «J.One». There was an old Soundcloud under this alias. Minho wasn’t able to stay awake for much longer, so he just clicked the follow button and fell asleep with his phone still in his hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay I'm not really happy with this chapter but I really want to go to the next one already so here we are 
> 
> I'm @blzmchkArthur on Twitter btw!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Have a nice day!


	7. Chapter 7

It was a good day. Everything was good. Minho was good.

His day started with Spidey texting him some dumb meme. Minho spent a few minutes to find and send him an even dumber one. He then provided a selca distorted by a freaky filter to the degree where only a person who knew him in real life would be able to recognize it as a selca.

Spidey parried:

Spidey

youre so weird

Lee Minho

excuse you I’m perfect

and anyway you’re weird yourself

your name is SPIDERMAN

Spidey

u know its not my actual name right

and whats wrong with spiderman

Lee Minho

it’s even worse because you can’t choose your real name

this though

was a conscious choice

Spidey

stop bullying me its too early >:(

They kept chatting back and forth, and Minho kept lazing off in bed. He wanted to brush his teeth, but every time he put his phone away Spidey would send something that required an immediate response. Finally, when the conversation slowly dragged itself to this awkward phase where you both don’t actually have anything important to say, but neither wants to stop, Minho got out of bed.

His own shining eyes surprised him in the mirror. He didn’t even realize talking to Spidey made him this happy. This was a piece of information that Minho would never willingly give away, so he splashed some cold water into his face. Just to cool down.

There was another notification, this time from insta, and he checked it while changing from his nightwear.

Spiderman_Official

hello.

youre probably wondering why i gathered all of you here.

Minho checked who else was in the chat. Just he, Spidey and Hyunjin. He knew the need for this combination immediately.

LeeKnow

oh right batlix

Spiderman_Official

okay yeah that

damn you stole my thunder

LeeKnow

just like I stole your heart?

Spiderman_Official

HUH YOU WISH

Hyun_jinnie

Wow that caps is totally not panicky

Good morning Spider

Good morning Minho-hyung

LeeKnow

were you lurking there waiting for a dramatic entrance?

Hyun_jinnie

Average morning Minho-hyung

Spiderman_Official

good morning! ^^

can we go back to plotting now

i think i got a plan

but it requires a jet pack a ferris wheel and a very close timeframe

Hyun_jinnie

Wow your plan sucks dude

Spiderman_Official

i do not take constrictive criticism

LeeKnow

he’s right it probably sucks

Spiderman_Official

thamks for support ig

i though we shared a bond why would you do me dirty like this

so come up with your own plans if youre so clever

And so they spent a good hour or so coming up with more and more elaborate plans to make Felix and Batman meet inconspicuously. None of the plans were even close to executable.

Then Felix himself came to wake them up and they had to quickly cover up their secret group chat and say by to Spidey, who just sent a string of kissy emojis and went offline.

Sleepy Felix cuddled Minho all the time he moved around their kitchen, inventing a breakfast that would satisfy two grown man and a koala. Minho grumbled, complaining how inconvenient it was to cook with Felix sticking to him, but there was no bite to it. He secretly loved it. Felix knew it and just filtered out most of his grunts, only paying attention to occasional directions like «pass me the spatula».

For all Minho’s demonstrative annoyance, it only added to his day being good.

And it went on like this.

The weather was nice.

The radio show they attended went smoothly - they even had fun recording. The host was charming and effortlessly funny, making Felix forget his insecurities with Korean and bringing out Hyunjin’s dramatic antics. Minho enjoyed the two hours’ session so much he didn’t even feel the time fly by.

The cafe they went to for lunch was cozy and served Minho’s favourite, and they took a few selcas, uploading them to Instagram immediately. Minho checked the group chats while at it, but there were no new messages.

Then it was practice time, and even the studio seemed somehow brighter. It was a well-used room with squeaky floors, lighting that left much to be desired and a mirror covered with handprints from all their previous buffoonery, but just today and just now, filled with laughter and cheers, it was the most wonderful place to be. And Minho smiled to himself, feeling light and bubbly with laughter.

At some point Hyunjin and Felix decided to catch a break and slumped down in the corner, grabbing two water bottles. They giggled between themselves, but Minho didn’t listen closely, focusing instead on his moves. He had went over the routine several times when he noticed that Felix and Hyunjin fell oddly quiet. Not that their silence was suspicious, but they were overall loud individuals, so Minho glanced at their reflexion in the mirror. They were watching something on Felix’s phone, sharing one earpiece. Minho thought maybe it was TikTok they were watching, but on closer inspection their expressions seemed out of place. They looked too serious, solemn even, or maybe scared.

‘Guys?’ He asked tentatively. ‘Is everything alright?’

They raised their heads in sync, eyes serious and for some reason sympathetic.

‘What?’ He asked, feeling uncomfortable under such gazes.

Felix unplugged the earpiece from his phone.

‘I think you should see it, hyung,’ he said in a careful, gentle tone that made his voice sound much older.

An unpleasant feeling twisted his stomach, and because before it had been a perfect day, this felt like a kick to the gut. Minho quickly joined them on the floor and glanced at the screen. It was a news story, the headline reading «Violent Fight Breaks Out in Seoul» and under it a header «Will we see Spiderman again?». The video was paused, but it was clearly something recorded by a passer-by, judging by the angle and the quality.

Minho pressed play. Immediately the sounds of frantic screaming and shooting filled his ears. He almost flinched.

On the screen a figure dressed in green - a villain, probably, was shooting from an absurdly big gun in all directions. Spidey was dogging effortlessly, but he seemed hesitant somehow, Minho could tell. He must have been worried about civilians.

The villain paused, screamed something at Spidey. It was impossible to make out over the noise. Spidey retorted, but again it was drowned out. He was riling the villain up, that’s for sure, but they still held their enormous gun down. It was clear that they were out of whatever ammo they ran on.

Spidey also though so and hurried to get closer.

It was when he’d got close already that he felt something was off - he suddenly did a backflip, sensing the threat before the villain could fire. The shot missed his head, at which they were aiming, but it still got him. Spidey landed on his feet shakily, pressed one hand to his side. And then he feel to his knees, and then he fell face down on the ground.

The video became grainy for a few moments, the person recording finally took cover. When it cleared back other characters appeared on the scene.

Batman landed heavily behind the villain, spraining the dust with the force of his landing. They turned round on their heels and barely missed a punch to their masked face.

At the same time Spiderman hovered over Spidey’s limp body, his presence alien andotherworldly. The camera was following the fight, but one could see in the background how Superman picked him up and took off.

Minho hastily scrolled through the time stamp on the video, trying to see if there’s anything else, but it was all. Neither Spidey not Superman appeared anymore.

‘Hyung?’ Felix gently stroked his hand holding the phone. Minho noticed that his knuckles turned white from how hard he was clutching it.

He couldn’t tell what his expression looked like, but he knew he had to school it into something impassive. No matter how scared and shocked and numb he felt, he couldn’t let Felix and Hyunjin see. He couldn’t proceed his emotions with someone watching, especially when they were watching for his reaction.

So he stood up. He didn’t feel his legs for some reason, but he stood up.

‘I’ll be back in a minute,’ he said and fled the studio, feeling their worried gazes burn into his back.

As soon as he was alone, which happened to be on the dusty stairwell between two floors, he opened his chat with Spidey.

Lee Minho

are you okay?

please tell me you’re okay

Spidey I swear to god

There was no answer. He breathed in and breathed out.

Lee Minho

say something please

hey

please be okay

There was no answer. Of course he wouldn’t be Spidey’s first contact in this situation. Of course. But he needed some confirmation that Spidey was okay. That he was alive. Minho closed his eyes and saw Superman taking his limp body in his hands. No, he thought, no, no, no.

Minho opened the contact and called. Maybe Superman was still with him, maybe he would answer and tell Minho that it was nothing, that superheroes could take a hit like that any time, that Spidey was okay. Instead of agonizingly long dial tones he heard a female voice informing him that «the number you are trying to call is currently unavailable».

He sled down against the wall.

There was literally no way for him to reach Spidey. He opened the chat again, staring at the contact name. Of course he wouldn’t be able to contact Spiderman. He was a superhero, after all, and Minho was just Minho. They may have claimed to be friends - just this morning Spidey was joking about their «soul bond» - but in reality Minho knew nothing about him. He didn’t even know his real name. They were practically strangers, not even on a first name basis, somewhere at hello still.

And it shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did. Minho wasn’t even entitled to feel hurt.

So he took a deep breath, steading himself.

Lee Minho

I really hope you’re okay

text me when you can please I’ll be waiting

And then he made himself stop. Just stop. There was no other way, so he just held it in and carried on, because feeling sick from worry wouldn’t have helped.

Felix and Hyunjin were waiting in the studio, probably respecting his privacy. They looked like lost children from a Dickens novel, with their big shiny worried eyes.

‘Is he… is he okay?’ Felix asked cautiously, looking up from his place on the floor. He was so precious that Minho felt his heart ache.

Minho smiled at him reassuringly, even though he himself knew it didn’t look very convincing.

‘I wasn’t able to contact him,’ he said. ‘But I’m sure everything will be alright. Don’t worry, okay? I’ll let you know if I find out anything.’

They shared a look then, a quick unreadable exchange that he wasn’t privy to.

‘Okay,’ Hyunjin said, and they both nodded.

They didn’t talk about Spidey anymore that day.

Before going to sleep Minho stalked the Spiderman tag for a good hour, reading all the theories of what happened to him. People seemed to like him. That came as no surprise, since Spidey was amazing. He was one of those people you see once and immediately know they are amazing. He had fans, it turned out, and they were worried about him, and people who were not his fans were worried, and nobody knew what happened.

Minho fell asleep that night listening to «Sunshine» on repeat.

Next day there were still no news from or about Spiderman.

Minho searched the news, then sns. Nobody seemed to have any solid information. He opened their chat even though there were no notifications.

Lee Minho

I really hope you’re okay

please be alive

He debated adding «I’m worried», but it was not about him, so he just stared at the messages blankly, hoping agains hope that they will suddenly become read and Spidey will text back as usual - something dumb, and cute, and with an atrocious number of typos. But there was nothing, so he scraped himself off the bed and put on a mask of a rational functioning human being.

Hyunjin looked at him expectantly when they bumped into each other in the bathroom, but Minho just ruffled his hair.

‘Morning!’ He cheered, and Hyunjin smiled and didn’t ask anything.

Felix woke up later and seemed too out of it to actually string together words to form coherent sentences, so he didn’t ask anything either. Which was for the best.

Minho kept being an exemplary member of society till lunch, when he heard two staff members discuss Spiderman and what happened to him in a casual, lazy, chit-chat manner. It sounded like they were talking about a cartoon character, or a tv-show. There was so little genuine sympathy in their voices that Minho had to excuse himself to the bathroom.

He splashed some water into his face, then remembered he was wearing make up and hurriedly applied several paper towels to the smeared eyeshadow. The result glared at him in the mirror. He sighed and threw the wet towels away. He couldn’t save his face.

Almost without his control, his hands reached for the phone. There were a few messages, but not the ones he was waiting for. He opened the chat.

Lee Minho

a short message

just something

just anything to show that you are alive

No response. Of course.

He took the phone away, breathed in and out, then continued about his day. There were things to do, hands to shake, people to charm, and he couldn’t afford moping, not today. He only let himself another slight breakdown at night, lying in bed wide awake despite the late hour and the sort of bone-tiredness he hadn’t experienced in quite some time. Minho blinked at the ceiling illuminated with erratic lights coming from all the street banners outside (he didn’t draw the curtain, but since he wasn’t getting any sleep anyway he didn’t stand up to close it).

He spent something like a full hour searching obscure Spiderman fan blogs, then Superman fan blogs, then Batman fan blogs for any hint, any theory, any far-fetched explanation of how he actually was totally fine, just chilling. But the internet seemed to be as lost as Minho felt.

This hopeless quest only gave him headache, and he turned to the remedy that proved reliable last time. He fell asleep with Spidey’s voice in his ears, singing about sunshine.

Next morning there still was no news.

Minho sort of fell into a routine after that. He would send a message in the morning after waking up and in the evening before going to sleep. Even though it was becoming more and more obvious that there won’t be any reply, he couldn’t just let it go.

Lee Minho

I don’t know what to say anymore

just

answer me please

Lee Minho

there is nothing on the news

I don’t know what to think

Lee Minho

today I saw a post that said that you’re probably dead

the audacity right

Lee Minho

you know what

it’s really rude of your friends not to make a statement

like

they KNOW people are worried

are they really this busy? just a word

he’s okay that would be enough

please tell me you’re okay

Except for these messages (that sounded even to himself like he was losing it, he could admit that much) Minho didn’t think about him at all. He focused on work, and when he noticed an ad that featured a superhero, or saw something that he knew Spidey would like, or heard someone discuss the news and the trial of the villain that had been apprehended last week, his heart didn’t skip a beat. At all.

He made a point of being as nice as usual - which, honestly, wasn’t a lot - and keeping a cool facade in front of his friends. He didn’t know if they believed it, but at least they had enough tact (or self-preservation) not to ask him any questions that might lead to an emotional outburst. They may have discussed it between themselves though. After all, they also knew Spidey personally and probably liked him, as far as Minho could tell.

Late at night he explored J.One’s soundcloud. «Sunshine» was recent, but several rap tracks appeared to be from a few years before. They sounded different, and there were cringey parts that gave away that the track had been written by a high school student, but overall they were great. Actually great, not well-he-is-my-friend great. Minho listened to his voice and imagined all the things he could tell him. «Wow, this line is embarrassing». «I like this beat». «How did you think of this metaphor?». «I miss you, when will you come back?».

Days stretched out, sunny and nice, as if nothing happened. As if Minho was the crazy one, sick with worry over something (someone) he had no claim to.

When they finally had a rare actual day off, Hyunjin suddenly decided to go shopping. It was so out of character for him that Felix volunteered to accompany him, partially to record the whole process and partially because Felix was in dire need of affection and it was Hyunjin’s turn to be its lucky object. Minho was fine with it, he didn’t feel like going out anyway. The day was sunny, but for some reason it was only making him sleepy. Weird.

Minho dragged himself out of bed, trying to have a grain of dignity, but proceeded to lounge on the sofa in the main room. He didn’t even change into nice outdoor clothes. An oversized T-shirt and shorts, that was his bold fashion statement for the day.

Youngbokkie

hyung i think hes having second thoughts

its only the second store T_T

Minho hyung

yeah I bet he won’t even buy anything

Youngbokkie

he has to!!

theres no way hes borrowing my clothes anymore

Minho chuckled softly, amused at his determination. He knew for a fact that next time Hyunjin asks if he could borrow something from Felix, the most displeasure Felix would show is a pout. And it would be a cute one anyway so that wouldn’t even count as real frustration.

Minho hyung

sure jan

Youngbokkie

wait hyung is it a meme i taught you

omg im so proud (✿◠‿◠)

Minho started typing a text telling him to babysit Hyunjin better before he really leaves without actually buying anything, but a sharp sound interrupted him. Minho dropped the phone, jumpy as usual.

The thing was, it was a distinct knocking sound. On the window. Of their dorm. Which happened to be on the fifth floor. 

Minho sprang to his feet and was met with one of the best views ever. Spidey, stuck to his window, detached one hand and shyly waved.

‘Oh my god,’ Minho breathed out and hurried to unlock the window which had never been previously opened. Spidey watched him struggle. Finally, Minho figured it out and Spidey squeezed in, landing softly on the floor.

‘Hey,’ he started saying something, but Minho didn’t let him finish, engulfing him in a tight, slightly hysterical hug. He heard, or maybe just felt, Spidey gasp quietly, probably from the force with which Minho threw himself on him, but his arms flew up to hug him back. He was warm, as usual, and unexpectedly thin, but fit in Minho’s arms perfectly.

‘Fuck,’ Minho muttered in his shoulder, and then repeated, for good measure. ‘Fuck!’

Spidey didn’t say anything, just clasped his arms around Minho’s waist tighter.

‘I thought…’ Minho didn’t know himself what he wanted to say and why, but jumbled words poured out. ‘I thought I’d never see you again!’

Spidey then leaned back and stared at him.

‘Minho?’ He said, softly and carefully, as if talking to a child or a spooked animal. ‘Are you crying?’

Minho scoffed at this ridiculous proposition, but it came out as more of a weepy sniffle. With utter dismay Minho realized that he was, in fact, crying. It was so embarrassing he turned away and covered his face with an elbow, still holding onto Spidey’s shoulder with the other hand. He couldn’t let him disappear again.

‘No!’ He claimed. ‘Shut up!’

But there was no covering it now. How humiliating. He was full-on crying for the first time in years.

‘Minho,’ Spidey said, but Minho couldn’t read his tone.

He sniffed again, giving up on any attempts to save his face. Fine. Feeling vulnerable was shit, but he couldn’t change the fact that this idiot made him feel things more than he was comfortable admitting. So he just lashed out, because - honestly - Spidey deserved it. 

‘I didn’t know what happened! I was so fucking scared!’ He wiped his wet face, spitting out angry words faster than his brain could supply them. ‘You were not answering, and I didn’t know how to reach you! I was afraid you were dead and I didn’t know what to do, because I don’t know anything about you, I don’t even know your name, so if something really happened I would never find out! And no one was saying anything, the uncertainty was killing me! We’re not even that close, and I don’t have the right to be worried, but, fuck, I was so scared and-’

Suddenly Spidey shushed him, putting a gloved finger to his lips. Minho was so shocked by this touch he actually fell silent, blinking at him, confused and disoriented.

‘Jisung,’ Spidey said. Just one word.

At first Minho didn’t understand. He opened his mouth to ask what he meant, but then it hit him. It hit him hard. He froze. He probably looked disgusting, face wet with tears and mouth making a perfect round «O» shape, but Spidey seemed to be smiling. Minho could just feel it, like his smile was a physical object, a wave or maybe a particle, strong enough to knock the breath out of him.

‘Hello, Jisung,’ he whispered.

This name was a dangerous and miraculous secret, and it needed to be kept safe. It was a magic spell, powerful enough to burn the world, or just a world - Minho’s world, and it needed to be treated with caution. And it was a gift, precious and sincere, and it needed to be cherished.

‘Hello, Minho,’ he replied quietly - Jisung replied. ‘It’s okay, I’m here.’

Minho nodded. And then he punched Jisung not-so-softly.

‘Ouch!’ He complained, rubbing the offended shoulder.

Minho sniffled again, trying to regain some sort of composure, and quickly swept fingers over his wet face, trying to wipe it.

‘It’s for scaring me,’ he explained vacantly.

Jisung sighed an exasperated sigh, worthy of a weary suburban mum, hands on hips and all that.

‘All right,’ he said in a tone of voice people usually use to say «look what you made me do». ‘It won’t happen again. You’ll be the first person I go to in case something happens, and you won’t have to worry.’

He looked mildly annoyed, but in a playful, affectionate manner. Now that they hugged Minho couldn’t get out of his head how lean and compact he was. Like he was made to be in Minho’s arms or something.

‘Promise?’ He asked out-loud and held a pinky.

Jisung chuckled - a magnificent sound - and intertwined their pinkies.

‘Promise,’ he said.

He then insisted that Minho stayed hydrated, and they grabbed a couple bottles of water and relocated to Minho’s room. Jisung explained what happened - turned out, the blast of the green villain’s gun only stunned him, but the energy they used somehow heightened his Spider-senses, so he had no other choice than to stay in Superman's den or whatever till the effect wore off. His phone was destroyed in the fight, that’s why he couldn’t contact anyone (Minho) to reassure them (Minho) that he was okay. In fact, he still didn’t return to his old number and consequently didn’t see all the embarrassing texts Minho had sent.

They exchanged numbers once again, and this time when Spiderman typed in his number and saved it himself, the name read «Jisung».

He had left before Hyunjin and Felix returned, but promised to talk to them later. After all, they had also worried.

Later, when he was already going to sleep, there came a message.

Jisung

i also missed you btw

good night!

Minho smiled at the screen like a happy idiot he was.

Minho

good night jisungie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bet you though it was going to be fluff huh
> 
> anygays top came out like today and i still haven't seen it so i gotta go STREAM  
> im on Twitter @blzmchkArthur come chat if you'd like
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! It really means a lot <3


	8. Chapter 8

Minho was making coffee when Hyunjin woke up. They heard him stumble several times on his way to the bathroom, rather audibly, and chuckled at his expense. Hyunjin took his time lazily going through his morning skincare routine, and by the time he exited, all fresh and smelling faintly of green tea and lime, they had settled down comfortably on the soft carpet in the living room. The carpet had been stained by coffee long ago and was braced to suffer more damage anyway.

Hyunjin yawned and then his gaze fell on the pair of them. Pretty much as was expected of him, he shrieked and collapsed on the floor in a cartoonish kind of way. They watched him fall.

‘Told you so,’ Minho commented, satisfied at his prediction coming true, and took a sip of his coffee.

Jisung softly whistled.

‘I thought you were exaggerating,’ he admitted, pointing at Hyunjin with his cup. ‘But this is a whole ass dead drop.’

Minho hummed, proud of Hyunjin for being Hyunjin.

‘Impressive,’ Jisung added and put the cup on the table.

Hyunjin got up heavily, clutching at the armchair that happened to be in his reach. He looked a mix between fuming and embarrassed, pursing his lips angrily.

‘You’re alive!’ He exclaimed, though it was hard to tell if it was an accusation or a pleasant discovery.

Jisung waved at him, smiling shyly. Minho didn’t know if Hyunjin could tell it, but despite his loud and flashy exterior, Hyunjin proved to be surprisingly good at reading people in all the time Minho knew him. So, even if he couldn’t exactly tell Spidey’s expression under that impassive mask, he probably got some kind of vibe.

‘Awww, thank god!’ He quickly closed the distance between them and patted Jisung on the shoulder. The gesture should have been awkward, but because Hyunjin was genuinely relieved and happy, it wasn’t. Minho thought it was sort of sweet, actually.

Apparently woken up by all this commotion, Felix shouted from his room, voice gruff still.

‘What’s happening?’

The door to his room slammed against the wall. Not because he was in a hurry, but rather because he was still half-asleep and uncoordinated. There was a sound of shuffling.

Hyunjin shouted back more loudly than was strictly needed.

‘Spider is here!’

Felix made a noise of confusion, deep but still cute.

‘Ew, put it away!’ He complained with disgust in his voice. Then he rounded the corner and saw them all.

Jisung crossed his arms over his chest.

‘Ouch,’ he said. ‘And I though we were friends.’

Felix seemed to wake up immediately, all sluggishness gone. With a delighted gasp he joined them on the floor, somehow managing to hug not only Jisung, but also Minho and Hyunjin.

With the four on them crammed between the sofa and coffee table it was getting uncomfortable. The table edge cut into Minho’s side, and Felix’s knee felt too pointy on his leg. He complained loudly (meaning he yelled) and crawled on the sofa, making space for others on the carpet.

‘I’m so glad you’re okay!’ Felix cried out, and Hyunjin who had the misfortune of being the closest to his face, winced from the sheer volume of his apparent gladness. ‘We were worried! Especially Minho-hyung!’

For some reason Hyunjin slapped Minho on the thigh and joined.

‘Yeah, hyung was going crazy!’ He had the audacity to claim.

Minho scoffed in an attempt to interrupt them.

‘That’s not true,’ he made a threatening face at Felix, trying to convey how much he didn’t recommend going against him. ‘I was worried a normal amount.’

But betrayal came from an unexpected party.

‘Su-u-ure, baby,’ Jisung drawled out. ‘And you totally didn’t start crying when you saw me.’

Three heads turned to level a surprised, a smug and an amused look at him accordingly. Minho felt his ears heat up. Argh, at this rate soon everybody and their mother would know that he could feel feelings. How annoying.

Minho used the proximity to his advantage and punched Jisung on the shoulder.

‘Ouch!’ He winced and rubbed at it. ‘You can’t silence the truth!’

Minho couldn’t agree with that and threw a cushion at him. However, since he was sitting right next to him, his impromptu projectile went over Jisung’s shoulder and smacked Felix in the chest, barely missing the coffee cup on the table.

‘Oh, come one, hyung!’ Felix hugged the cushion. ‘It’s fine! We won’t call you crybaby or anything!’

‘We won’t?’ Hyunjin asked, confused. Felix made a stern face at him, looking vaguely like a kindergarten teacher explaining to his kids that fighting is bad. He then pushed the cushion at Hyunjin’s face, though, so all resemblance was lost.

Hyunjin yelped and in his turn slammed the cushion into Jisung.

‘What was that for?’ Jisung yelled, scrambling away from him and jumping on the sofa. Minho moved to make room for him, but Jisung slung a hand over his shoulder, so he stayed put. The fabric of Jisung’s suit felt unexpectedly silky and warm on the back of his neck, and he relaxed a bit against Jisung’s side.

‘For revenge,’ Hyunjin explained. ‘Felix hit me because Minho-hyung cried, and it was you who made him cry, so it’s your fault I was hit!’

Minho couldn’t help but giggle at that, so utterly wrong it was. Jisung shifted on the sofa, unable to contain his bafflement.

‘There’s literally not a single valid connection in these logical jumps,’ he laughed, sounding scandalized. It was a trait of him that Minho liked a lot - Jisung didn’t get angry, he just got amused and incredulous. Even when another person would spiral into micro aggressions, even then he just barked that breathy laughter of his, like he was too full of light for that, too full of kindness.

Hyunjin cocked an eyebrow at him.

‘Did you just call me stupid?’ He asked, putting on his best redemption of fury.

Jisung laughed again.

‘I don’t care that you’re a superhero,’ Hyunjin made a vague gesture that was supposed to resemble something from martial arts but looked more like a shaman ritual. ‘I’ll kick your ass!’

Minho met Felix’s gaze for half a second and they immediately got each other. They knew each other for so long they were practically reading each other’s minds.

‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’ They started chanting, Felix punching the air with his fist and Minho slapping Jisung’s thigh ever so slightly to the same rhythm.

Jisung retracted his arm from Minho’s shoulders.

‘Well,’ he rolled his shoulders, warming up. ‘In this case I’ll overlook the fact that you’re a civilian!’ He suddenly grabbed the two cushions that lay on his side of the sofa. ‘Prepare to die!’

And chaos ensued.

For all his big talk, Jisung didn’t resort to his Spider-senses or whatever he called it, for he was hit smack in the face quite a few times. His retaliatory blows were rather weak as well. Felix joined the fight when one of them kicked the table and both cups rolled over, spilling coffee all over the carpet and Felix’s pajamas. He then resorted to merciless tickling, which was one of Hyunjin’s greatest weaknesses.

Minho was dragged into the battle when Jisung tripped over nothing and fell over him, making Felix miss and bring down his weapon (the cushion) on the top of Minho’s head. Seeking revenge, Minho caught a fistful of Felix’s shirt and brought him down on the sofa. As Felix tried to get back up, Minho laid on top of him.

However, he was not the only one who thought of this genius strategy. Just moments later someone fell on Minho and from the way he cursed Minho realized it was Jisung. He was just going to shrug him off, when the cherry on top - Hyunjin the victorious joined them. Poor Felix, crushed under all of them, squeaked in his high voice. Jisung apparently hadn’t expected him to sound like that.

‘Was it Felix?’ He asked. ‘Did we break him?’

Hyunjin shifted his weight, making Felix yelp again.

‘Nah,’ he said. ‘He’s fine.’

Minho laughed silently, mostly because two bodies on top of him didn’t let him breath in enough for a proper laugh.

‘I’m really not!’ Felix complained, still in the impossibly high tone he used only on variety shows. ‘Get off me, you, bastards!’

With a huff Hyunjin slid off to the floor like an absurdly attractive dorky noodle. Jisung stood up then and offered Minho a hand. He took it without a second thought and barely contained a surprised gasp when Jisung pulled him to his feet easily like pulling a carrot out of the dirt. Like, he had to take a few tiny steps to steady himself, that’s how hard the pull was.

Despite even the bright suit he was doning literally all the time, Minho sometimes forgot Jisung was a superhero.

As if on cue, he brought a hand to his ear, listening on to something. Minho though he was frowning, but maybe it was his imagination. There was probably some device built in his suit, allowing him to communicate directly with other heroes. Or something.

‘Well, on that note I have to leave you, guys,’ he said, still holding up his hand. ‘Duty calls.’

Felix waved at him, like a shy kid who was told to be polite by his mum. Hyunjin also waved, but he added. ‘Come back to insta already, Spider! We’ll be making fun of Minho-hyung again!’

Jisung snickered somewhat conspiratorially.

‘Wait, what was that?’ Minho frowned.

They all smiled innocently, which in itself was highly suspicious.

‘Nothing for you to worry your pretty head about,’ Jisung sing-sang. It was super annoying and Minho didn’t pay attention to the fact that he called him pretty at all. ‘Better show me out.’

Minho narrowed his eyes at him but let it slide.

At the front door, before going up to the roof and leaving from there (it was still a slightly more discreet way of sneaking in and out), Jisung turned to him, as if he forgot something.

‘Do you have any plans tomorrow?’ He asked casually, sounding pressed for time. Minho hummed, thinking.

‘I’m free in the evening,’ he said. ‘You have something in mind?’

Jisung giggled almost nervously.

‘I kinda do, but you might hate me afterwards,’ he said mysteriously. Minho wanted to ask why, but it was clear he didn’t have time. So he looked over his shoulder to make sure there were just the two of them and then leaned in.

‘I’ll never hate you, Sungie,’ he said quietly. And because he said it so quietly, his voice sounded thin even to his own ears, so he cringed inwardly. It seemed to have the same effect on Jisung, who froze for a second and then took off without saying anything else.

Minho never quite managed to express his authentic feelings anyway. It always came out like this, cringey and embarrassing. Not that it bothered him much.

‘Hyung, what about breakfast?’ Felix called out, and Minho went about his day.

Spidey’s triumphant comeback happened the same day, and SNS went crazy. Somehow his disappearance only made him more popular, new fans popping up all over the internet.

As if it was some inner joke, Felix and Hyunjin shared any speculations and rumors about what Spiderman had been up to while he was missing in their group chat. Minho came to realize that in a way it was an inner joke now.

Spidey finally logged on insta and immediately posted a picture of himself with obnoxiously big sunglasses, the caption reading «I bet you thought you saw the last of me».

Lixie00

surprise bitch~

Spiderman_Official

yes bitch~

Lixie00

the taste!!!

the style <3

Hyun_jinnie

Stop inflating his ego Lix.

Spiderman_Official

leave my ego alone you bitch

!!

Hyun_jinnie

Yes I AM a bitch !!

Im a bitch

Im a boss

LeeKnow

can you all kindly shut the hell up

pretty please

none of you can even be qualified as a bitch you are little babies

Lixie00

i am-

disgusted…

LeeKnow

you sleep with a plushie lix dont even try it

Hyun_jinnie

Hes right Lix! You are too cute to be a bitch <3

Lixie00

jinnie <3 <3 <3

LeeKnow

and hyunjin you cant watch horror films without hugging someone

cause they are quote unquote scary T_T uwu

you are baby as well

Hyun_jinnie

False allegations! Fake news!!

Lixie00

’s all true jinnie is a big baby

Spiderman_Official

but on me you have nothing

so

im the bad bitch here

checkmate losers

LeeKnow

honey dont think I cant destroy you

just back off and accept that you are baybe

last warning

Spiderman_Official

you cant destroy me because im

THAT BITCH

LeeKnow

well then

…

jeogiyo

noona

Spiderman_Official

wait

LeeKnow

hokshi

namjachingu

Spiderman_Official

abort!!! abort!

i surrender!!!

LeeKnow

isseoyo?

Spiderman_Official

I’M SO SORRY

i was wrong

Lixie00

i dont get it

Spiderman_Official

theres nothing to get!!!

im baby

LeeKnow

my sweet summer children

the only bad bitch here is ME

Spiderman_Official

yes sir

Hyun_jinnie

ew keep your kinks to yourself

Spiderman_Official

you know what i hate it here

i shouldve stayed mia

goodbye!!!!

Minho only realized that he was smiling wide when his manager asked what happened. Felix and Hyunjin were all in separate locations so, luckily, they didn’t see that embarrassing shit.

Deep down he had to admit though, that he was happy that all his friends got along so well. Not that he needed anyone’s approval on anything ever. But still, it felt rather nice.

He almost forgot that they were supposed to meet up with Jisung, but apparently his friends all conspired behind his back. On a second thought them getting along wasn’t all that perfect.

‘Hyung,’ Felix said when he exited the bathroom that day. ‘Aren’t you going to style your hair?’

Minho ruffled his wet hair and blinked at him confusedly.

‘Why would I?’ He said.

Felix looked over at Hyunjin, who was busy shoving obscene amounts of ice cream up his face. He had to gulp down an enormous spoonful to intervene.

‘Well, you are hanging out with Spider, right?’ He said.

Minho shrugged. He didn’t remember telling them, but that wasn’t a secret either.

‘And what about it?’ He said, not seeing the big problem. ‘It’s just Spidey.’

Hyunjin looked at Felix, who put down his phone. That weird game of ping pong almost began to stress Minho out.

‘Yeah,’ Felix fidgeted with his hands. ‘But, like, you never know what might happen…’

Minho blinked at him, then shifted his gaze to examine Hyunjin. Hyunjin smiled innocently through his ice cream.

Something was obviously up.

‘Okay, just tell me,’ he sighed.

Felix giggled for no apparent reason.

‘Tell you what, hyung?’

Minho narrowed his eyes at the both of them. They looked back with the same expression your dog gives you when you ask who ate all the toilet paper.

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Fine. Have it your way.’

And he went back to the bathroom. He could make himself look presentable, but under no circumstances he wanted Jisung to guess that he took an extra effort to do it.

When he got a message from Spidey saying that he was on the roof, it was already getting dark and Minho had put on some makeup, washed it off and applied it again. Hyunjin and Felix were making him nervous with their uncharacteristic interest in his appearance.

Jisung didn’t look any special, for one. He had the same suit on. So what was the point of Minho dolling up? Good thing he didn’t. Well, he did, but barely. It didn’t even count.

‘Hey,’ Jisung smiled. ‘You look nice today.’

Well maybe it counted a bit.

‘Thanks,’ he said, nonchalant as usual. ‘Now tell me what’s wrong.’

‘What?’

Minho slowly marched to him, hands in back pockets of his skinny jeans. For some reason up close he smelled different. Not that he usually reeked, but today he distinctly smelled of perfume. Minho couldn’t place the scent exactly, but it was a pleasant one, and it wasn’t too strong either.

‘Last time you said I’d hate you…’ Minho started counting on his fingers. ‘And today Hyunjin and Felix were all weird… Well that’s actually it. But still.’

Jisung sighed. There was a weird expression written all over his body language, one that Minho didn’t know how to read.

‘Good news is I have a surprise,’ he said in a high nervous tone. ‘I saw your win on this show. Congratulations! You really deserve it.’

Minho somehow didn’t expect him to remember that he was, after all, an artist. An idol. The aspect of his work usually came up only in terms of schedule, when they tried to agree on the time they both were available. He mentioned things from time to time, like how the new choreo for the title track was crazy cardio, but beautiful and unconventional, or how he worked all day on his rap, only to end up messing it altogether. But outside this, he never expected Jisung to actually take interest in his work. He never asked if Jisung heard his music at all. Obviously, he knew several songs, that much he stated at the very beginning of their friendship.

But, no matter how important his work was to him, Minho didn’t expect Jisung to be interested in it. He was already a terrific friend, and Minho didn’t want to push it.

‘Oh,’ he said presently. ‘Thank you.’

Mercifully, Jisung was too preoccupied with the rest of his news to notice his stupor.

‘But the bad news is,’ he shuffled with his toe. ‘It’s on another roof. Like, in another area.’

Minho blinked at him.

‘We’ll have to get there my way,’ he continued.

Minho scrunched his nose, his worst suspicions coming true.

‘No way,’ he said and looked over the edge at the city down there. Their regular hangouts sort of helped with heights - if he didn’t think about it much, he was perfectly fine even here, next to the very edge. If he didn’t think about it, and didn’t look down, it was okay.

The mere thought of being suspended this high on nothing but Spiderman’s webbing made him dizzy.

He hurried to get away from the edge and Jisung followed close.

‘No,’ he repeated. ‘It’s not happening.’

Jisung caught his hand in his gloved ones.

‘We can get there the normal way,’ Minho continued, feeling a little more steady. ‘Like, we can get a taxi. We’ll disguise you somehow and…’

‘This won’t work,’ Jisung interrupted, his voice apologetic and soft. ‘The place in questions is closed off, we can’t get there from inside the building.’

He rubbed Minho’s hand gently, like it was cold outside and he tried to warm him up.

‘Jisungie, I can’t,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry, I’m sure your surprise is great. Thank you! Really! But I just… I can’t…’

He trailed off, not sure how to explain that it wasn’t that he didn’t want to throw all caution to the wind and swing with him through the city. He just couldn’t. Maybe it was cowardice - he had no trouble saying he was a coward then. But just as water couldn’t flow up, only down, so Minho couldn’t just… he couldn’t.

Jisung sighed. He must have been very upset.

Minho closed his eyes, not ready to meet his disappointed gaze.

‘Minho,’ he said. His voice was so soft it practically sounded like a song. ‘It’s okay. If you don’t want to do this, we won’t. I’ll be perfectly happy to just stay here with you. Like always. We can order something delicious to celebrate.’

It sounded very appealing.

‘But,’ he continued, his voice still gentle, but more urgent and powerful. ‘If you trust me on this, if you can just believe that I’ve got you - I’m sure you will like this surprise. I won’t force you, of course. It’s up to you. Now just listen to yourself, okay?’

Minho nodded, still not looking at him. When he didn’t look it was easier not to think. Thinking rarely helped, it just set him on an all-repeating loop of anxious thoughts. It wasn’t helpful at all. Like when he imagined swinging above the city - it was queasily terrifying.

So he did what Jisung said - tried to listen. The air felt colder for some reason, but Jisung’s warm hands felt nice on his. Moreover, he could feel the warmth radiating from him even like this. His perfume smelled deep and just a right amount of sweet.

How did it all make him feel?

Minho listened to himself. Weird. He opened his eyes and was faced with that stupid mask staring back at him. He felt light. And he felt warm.

And when Jisung was there, holding his hand, he felt safe.

‘Holy fuck,’ he said, a bit shellshocked by this discovery. He was almost ready to jump off a building, and if Jisung was holding him, he still felt safe. ‘Sweet baby Jesus.’

Jisung, who, thankfully, couldn’t read his thoughts yet, stepped from one foot to another awkwardly.

‘I’m sorry, what does it mean?’ He asked, sounding anxious and probably searching his face for any hints.

Minho smiled at him. It wasn’t a practiced pretty smile, but it was a real one.

‘I hate you,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Let’s do this. I’m gonna close my eyes and scream all the time, just so you know.’

Jisung looked taken aback. His shoulders relaxed, though.

‘Are you sure?’ He said, confused as if it wasn’t him who even brought up the idea. ‘If you are not comfortable with this…’

Minho pulled at his hand impatiently.

‘I am not! I might pee a little, that’s how uncomfortable I am!’ How did he end up being the one to comfort Spiderman? ‘But… you know…’

Jisung waited for a second then shook his head.

‘I really don’t. What?’

Minho rolled his eyes. He didn’t feel like saying it out-loud, but if he needed everything spelled out.

‘I trust you, Jisung,’ he said. ‘Like you said - I trust that you’ve got me. So let’s do this.’

Jisung looked at him for a few moments. Minho couldn’t read what he was thinking. But then he pulled Minho closer to the edge.

‘Okay, cool,’ he said. Minho tried not to think how he almost sounded nervous himself. ‘So, hug me very tight.’

Minho looped his arms around his neck and hesitantly stopped. Jisung was just a few centimeters shorter, which made the position they were currently in oddly convenient. To be honest for a superhero he was rather tiny.

‘Uh, a bit tighter than that,’ Jisung said and put his hands on Minho’s waist, bringing him closer.

For a split second Minho felt flustered by the way their bodies pressed into each other. He was, by nature, a hugger, a proud big spoon, and living with Felix and Hyunjin he would cuddle with them without a second thought. But this was even closer, so close Jisung could probably feel his frantic heartbeat. It felt different, maybe because of what was going to happen next.

‘On the count of three,’ Jisung said, and Minho could not only hear, but feel his voice. One…’

Three was not enough! Maybe thirty? Thirty would be good!

Minho shut his eyes, hid his face in the crook of Jisung’s neck (it smelled of cologne even stronger) and squeezed him in a death grip that would have definitely hurt a weaker man.

‘Two,’ he said and suddenly the ground shifted - Minho inhaled sharply, but it was not the jump yet. They just moved to stand on the ledge. Jisung freed his right hand, now holding onto him with the other.

Feeling wind and inexplicable emptiness on his back Minho gave up any semblance of dignity and practically jumped on Jisung, circling his legs against his waist. He could swear Jisung cackled at that, but he didn’t care, latching onto him like his life depended on it. Because, well, it sort of did.

And then Jisung dashed forward without saying ‘three’, what a treacherous bastard.

Minho was not ashamed to admit that he did screech all the way in an uneven, but impressive falsetto. The headwind roared in his ears and pressed against him, trying to tear him off Jisung. But the worst was this feeling of push and pull, like on a roller coaster,with a moment of complete weightlessness in between - but hundred times stronger.

He couldn’t tell how long it lasted, he just knew it was longer than he preferred and he hated every second of it.

Finally, the motion stopped. The current of wind slowed down to a bearable breeze, and the noise it made died down.

‘That’s it,’ Jisung said. ‘We’re here. How are you feeling?’

Minho opened one eye. They were standing on solid ground, as far as he could tell with his view mostly obscured by Jisung’s chest.

‘Great,’ Minho replied and his voice almost didn’t shake. It took him a few attempts to untangle his legs from Jisung’s waist, but he didn’t have it in himself to be embarrassed. He breathed in, trying to relax his body and let go of Jisung, who just stood there, letting him gather himself. His brain felt like it was put in a freezer.

‘You did great,’ Jisung cheered him up a bit, rubbing comforting circles onto the arm Minho still had around his neck. ‘We made it, that’s it.’

His brain thawed out a little at that. He looked around.

‘So, where are we?’ He asked, focusing on the place instead.

Jisung, who seemed to be smiling, led him farther from the edge to the middle of the mystery place.

‘It used to be a rooftop garden restaurant, I guess,’ he explained.

Now that Minho was able to take in the surroundings, the place was beautiful. It was spacious once upon a time, but obviously terribly overlooked - the garden took over the area. It was all wild, and green, and vibrant. Wooden tables and oddly placed wicker chairs were dirty and shabby after being exposed to any weather without proper care. Paths between tables were covered in grass that wasn’t even supposed to grow there.

Despite the state of neglect and desolation, an area in the middle was cleared up. A cozy red blanket lay welcoming on the ground, along with a pair of fluffy cushions and even more blankets neatly folded. Fairy lights decorated the closest trees, illuminating a picnic basket, a bottle of wine and a pair of glasses.

It looked magical, like something you might see on tv and deem unrealistic, but here it was, prepared carefully just in case Minho found enough courage to find it.

‘Uh, surprise!’ Jisung sing-sang and made jazz hands.

With an effort Minho tore his gaze away from the wonderful view and looked at him.

‘You made this?’ He asked, incredulous. ‘For me?’

Jisung shrugged and pulled him closer to the blanket.

‘I found this place last week,’ he explained as they settled down. ‘I kept an eye on it, trying to see who it belongs to. Turned out the owner is under investigation for tax evasion and all his assets are frozen. So, this place is as good as abandoned. No one even comes to check on it!’

Minho hugged a pillow to his chest.

‘Wait, so we are illegally trespassing?’ He cocked an eyebrow.

Spiderman snorted.

‘I won’t tell if you won’t,’ he said in a very responsible and adult-like manner.

Minho held up a pinky to indicate that he wasn’t going to rat him out.

There was no wind here because of all the trees running wild, but still the air felt chilly. They both wrapped the spare blankets loosely around themselves. It was quiet here, and they just sat in comfortable silence, savoring the moment. Moments like these were best enjoyed thoroughly, without any distraction, so that they could stay with you forever.

After some time Jisung reached for the wine.

‘Would you like some?’ He offered. ‘There’s some coffee in case you don’t.’

This was definitely a wine night though, and Minho held out two glasses, for himself and for Jisung. Deep scent of wine from the open bottle mixed with the subdued aroma of Jisung’s perfume, and the wet earthy smell of plants and the sweet smell of wooden furniture rotting inevitably. Minho could get drunk just on that alone.

‘Can you drink, though?’ He though suddenly. ‘Like, will we get back fine?’

Jisung leaned back on his elbows. He looked relaxed and happy. Minho liked seeing him like this, it always made him feel like things were okay in the world. Maybe because he was Spiderman - like, if you see Spiderman happy surely that means there is no crime to fight, that sort of reasoning.

‘Don’t worry, I don’t think I even can get drunk. Since I became Spiderman no matter how much I drink I barely get tipsy,’ he didn’t sound particularly sorry about it.

Minho smirked at him over the rim of his glass.

‘Maybe you didn’t try hard enough?’ He suggested.

To take a sip of wine Jisung turned away. He rolled his mask up just enough to bring the glass up to his lips. Minho didn’t look, of course. He wasn’t going to intrude.

‘Maybe so,’ Jisung agreed lightly and palmed the mask down. ‘I actually didn’t. There never was the right time or good company.’

Minho patted his arm affectionately.

‘It’s a plan then, next time we’ll do our best to get you shit-faced, buddy.’

Jisung wiped an imaginary tear.

‘Thank you, Minho.’

‘Sure, that’s what friends are for.’

Minho wasn’t by any means a wine connoisseur, but this sort tasted pleasantly sweet, without any trace of alcohol. That is, there probably was quite enough alcohol, it was just nice that Minho couldn’t actually taste it.

‘Oh, right!’ Jisung suddenly perked up. ‘Speaking of friends! This is supposed to be celebration, remember?’

He raised his glass like a medieval king proclaiming his victory over another, less fortunate king.

‘Here’s to your win!’ They slowly and solemnly clinked glasses. For a second they really were two kings celebrating victory. It was honestly crazy how when they were goofing off together they could be anyone and anything.

‘It’s a great album, really,’ he continued. ‘And the video - I almost couldn’t believe that I know you in real life. Like, you might be an idiot, but when you perform it’s so painfully obvious that you’re an idol!’

Minho blinked at the ‘idiot’ part, but he felt too cozy to move, so he didn’t kick Jisung as he deserved.

‘When you’re on stage you have this aura, you know,’ Jisung gestured vaguely. ‘Like nothing can touch you.’

Minho blinked at him, surprised. He didn’t know Jisung had ever seen him perform.

‘Thanks, Sungie,’ he said, suddenly feeling warm inside, apparently from the wine. Then he reached over and fondly flicked him on forehead. ‘But that’s not true. You can touch me.’

Jisung giggled. Cute. And then he swiftly put the glass down and proceeded to touch Minho to his heart’s content - which consisted mostly of ruffling his hair and violently tickling. Saving his life Minho wiggled away and kicked at him like a wild horse.

‘I take it back!’ He loudly complained. ‘You can’t!’

He only laughed manically. What a weirdo.

Some more bickering later Minho bullied Spiderman into exposing the secret pocket where he kept his phone. He confiscated said phone and took an unholy amount of selcas. When the perfect angle for this lighting was found, he dragged Jisung closer.

‘Come one, let’s take a photo together,’ he hugged him with his free hand, smiling at the camera. On the screen he could see that Jisung was not looking at the camera. He was looking at him. If it wasn’t for the mask, his nose would have been in Minho’s (disheveled) hair. Fairy lights highlighted his profile beautifully, even with the mask on.

Minho jolted him a bit.

‘Hey, strike a pose, dummy,’ he urged.

Jisung obediently turned to the camera and put up the peace sign like a good Korean boy.

‘I’ll add some cool filter later,’ Minho promised and sent this one to himself right away.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to post this photo on any SNS, but it wasn’t the point.

Jisung groaned.

‘Not one of your freaky filters,’ he complained and plopped down on the blanket. Minho pushed a pillow under his head while he grumbled.

And when later Jisung brought him home (this time the trip was less scary, but that might have been alcohol talking), the first thing Minho did was change his phone background.

A sleepy Hyunjin joined him in the kitchen. Yawning like a kitten, he poured himself a glass of water and looked at Minho through half-lidded eyes.

‘So,’ he slurred a bit. ‘Did you enjoy your date, hyung?’

Minho frowned at him, lost for words.

‘What? It wasn’t… it wasn’t a date, Jinnie, what are you talking about?’

Hyunjin yawned again. Maybe he had had a strange dream and now couldn’t tell what was real and what was not.

‘You two are really something,’ he said mysteriously and padded barefoot back to his bedroom. Whatever he meant could wait till morning.

That night Minho’s dreams smelled like men’s cologne and fresh grass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yep this chapter we're Extra Oblivious folks
> 
> as usual, thank you so much for reading! I appreciate the comments soooo much ( ᵒ̴̶̷̥́ _ᵒ̴̶̷̣̥̀ ) but im so awkward and never know how to respond :(


	9. Chapter 9

Minho and Felix finished their vocal lessons at the same time, so they met up at the lobby. Hyunjin, who had gone to the studio to refine some of his own choreography pieces,started whining as soon as he learnt about this. Apparently, Hyunjin craved iced americano and since they were all going to meet up for a dance lesson anyway, it was Minho and Felix’s highest moral obligation to stop by their favourite coffeeshop and buy him one. The plight was growing more and more tragic, containing more and more crying emoticons, until Minho snapped.

Minho

we r not buying n e thing shut up

Felix looked at the message and then at Minho. He looked uncertain.

‘Are we really going to ditch him like that?’ He asked, too thoughtful for his own good. Felix didn’t have a single mean bone in his body.

Minho threw his hands up, mildly annoyed, which happened every time someone asked something of him.

‘Of course not,’ he said matter-of-factly, much calmer than would have been expected. ‘We’ll buy him coffee. I just don’t want him to think that I’ll cave in every time he asks.’

Felix nodded slowly, pretending to understand and relate.

So that’s how they found themselves queuing for coffee in a chain coffeeshop that shall not be named. Faces covered with masks, unassuming T-shirts on, they lazily squinted at the menu on the wall. The ambience inside the lively cafe made Minho sleepy for some reason - the clear light streaming through large windows, the gentle buzz of conversation and the bell on the door ringing every time someone entered or left, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and patisserie, all together it covered Minho like a heavy blanket, rending his thoughts languid, slow and lazy.

And then someone bumped into Felix. Which in itself wasn’t a problem, since Felix bowed and quickly apologized, so for any sane person that would have been the end of it. But this wasn’t any sane person. This one glanced at Felix, suddenly revealing their eyes - all orange and glowy, and snarled.

‘What the…’ Minho muttered, and then everybody else around them caught up. Someone screamed, and someone else cursed. The weird person straightened up (they were hunching before, how could they have missed it?) and turned out to be taller than everybody else in the room. Their face was illuminated by the otherworldly fire in their eyes.

‘Oh my god, are you okay?’ Felix asked of all things. The tall figure (they were clad in a dark brown gown, like some sort of Harry Potter wizard, but much more menacing) looked down at Felix, and reached out to grasp him. Surprised, Felix yelped when he was pulled closer.

With people fleeing away from the fiery figure Minho couldn’t snatch Felix from them in time. He cursed under breath and surged forward, not thinking what he was going to do. Cutting him off, the threatening figure slashed at the air between them with claws (holy shit their claws were massive). Minho recoiled and sharply hissed.

‘Let him go!’ He commanded, but the figure’s eyes glanced over him. The stranger gave poor, shocked Felix a jolt, shaking him like a puny kitten. ‘What the fuck do you want?’

This comment grabbed the figure's attention. Their glowing orbs focused on Minho. Belatedly, he realized that ringing he heard was not in his ears - it was coming from the bell on the door, jingling frenziedly because of everybody leaving in a panicked hurry.

‘We… we want,’ the voice that came out of that body was predictably low and boomy and exactly the sci-fi brand creepy.

Minho glanced around, looking for any sort of weapon. A knife. Literally anything. He knew he didn’t stand a chance against that Superhero level shit, but he didn’t need to defeat the asshole, he only needed to get Felix away from them.

No one was allowed to lay a damn finger on Felix, and Minho was ready to raise all the hell he could master.

He stealthily picked a pastry fork from the closest table. Felix followed his movement with wild eyes, and he might have been mouthing something, but because of the mask it was hard to tell.

‘We…’ meanwhile, the stranger decided on whatever they were going to say. ‘Demand… REVENGE!’

They (he?) swiftly raised their hand with clawed fingers sprawled out. Felix opened his eyes wide instead of squinting in fear. At the same time Minho charged at the giant figure, clutching his tiny dessert fork.

This could have ended very differently, if not for two things: a shuriken, shaped like a bat, which sank in the figure’s shoulder, throwing them back off balance, and a firm hand on Minho’s forearm, which yanked him back.

Everyone stared, in various degrees of surprise, at none other than Batman. The bell on the door didn’t even ring, so it was unclear how exactly he managed to just magically appear in the middle of the currently deserted cafe. It was a Batman thing, probably.

‘B… Batman!’ Felix breathed out. Even in his predicament he couldn’t contain excitement.

The hero steadied Minho a bit, making sure that he wasn’t going to run head first into danger, and then glanced coldly at the giant figure of unknown origin. The figure glared back, the shuriken sticking out of their shoulder like an accessory.

Then Batman made a slow step forward. Just a step - not a martial arts move or a threatening stance. Just a single steady step. But everyone in the room, the giant included, flinched.

‘How many times do I have to banish you?’ Batman asked, his voice clearly modulated to sound almost as low as the figure’s. It was hard to pick up on his intonations like this, but this phrase definitely sounded more annoyed than antagonizing. It was painfully clear that the whole situation didn’t even register as real emergency in his eyes.

Minho didn’t like that.

‘He’s got my friend, you, dipshit!’ He complained. ‘Save him first, show off second!’

Batman didn’t say anything at that, but Felix glared at him, apparently pissed that he wasn’t respectful enough. That was sort of true, but Minho kind of got used to superheroes lately.

Batman made a subtle gesture with his right hand.

‘Let the boy go,’ he said, and this time his modulated voice definitely sounded lower than the figure’s.

The giant’s eyes glowed even more red. They opened their mouth disturbingly wide, revealing a set of eerily long and sharp teeth.

‘NEVER!’ They boomed and swung their head back in order to bite into Felix harder.

They didn’t get to do that, because Batman did that subtle movement again, and a string came seemingly out of nowhere, cutting the figure’s head cleanly off. The head fell on the floor with a wet thump. Shocked Felix jumped away just in time to get out of the way of the body joining it. Minho caught Felix in his arms, hugging him close. They all watched both parts of the unknown creature dissipate into black liquid, and then shortly evaporate. In less than five seconds the floor bore no marks of any otherworldly figures.

‘The fuck…’ Minho softly whispered under his breath, rubbing reassuring circles on Felix’s back. He sort of expected Batman to disappear as well - he always had the reputation of a cold, detached, sometimes outright cruel vigilante.

But for some reason Batman picked up the shuriken and approached them.

‘Hey, are you okay?’ He asked. Because of the voice modulator it came out harsh and unfriendly. He probably noticed that as well, because he touched something on his neck and his next words came out perfectly human. ‘You’re Lee Minho, right? I recognized you because Spidey never shuts up about you.’

Minho blinked at him, still hugging Felix close. Batman’s real voice (wasn’t it too dangerous to just give out information about himself like that?) still sounded low. Almost Felix’s demon voice low, but not quite.

That wasn’t what surprised Minho most, though.

‘Spidey talks about me?’ He couldn’t help asking. ‘What does he say?’

Felix turned in his embrace to face Batman.

‘Well, the thing is,’ Batman cut off, his tone somehow harsh and warm at the same time. ‘Spidey couldn’t get here himself right now, but his sense tingled and I happened to be close. Plus it’s the third time this week I’m getting rid of one of these fuckers, they just keep popping up… Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. And your friend as well, of course.’

Batman finally looked at Felix, meeting his eyes. Under his gaze Felix let go of Minho and pulled down his mask. He looked a bit pale and shaken, but Minho didn’t miss the way Batman’s eyes widened for a second there, taking in Lee Felix in all his freckled glory.

‘Um, thank you so much for saving my life!’ Felix said in his deeper voice. ‘You seem to already know Minho-hyung… and I’m Felix!’

He bowed slightly, holding out a hand. Batman stared at his small delicate hand for a split second, but quickly snapped out of it.

‘Yeah,’ he said, and Minho admired how he managed to keep his voice leveled, despite the fact that Felix perked up and looked at him with smiling shiny eyes. Like, not a lot of people had that restraint. A weaker man would have blushed or stuttered. ‘See you around, Felix.’

And he made to leave, through the door this time, but looked over his shoulder one more time.

‘Hey, Minho,’ he said. ‘Text Spidey that you’re okay. Usually his spider-sense doesn’t go off because of other people being in danger… I guess you are pretty close, huh? ’

Minho also had some restraint, so the warmth he felt at those words stayed in his chest and didn’t flood his cheeks.

Minho

so i just met batsy

im okay btw

but that doesnt matter rn because…

batsy met felix!!

Jisung

BATLIX

Minho

i know right

Jisung

tell me everything

what was his reaction

are they getting married yet

Minho giggled and looked over at Felix in the opposite seat of the company van. He was fidgeting with his phone, looking distracted. Minho decided to leave him alone for the ride. After all, he had quite a day today.

Instead he snapped a selfie. It was not very good, but there wasn’t much he could do in a moving van without any makeup on.

Jisung

noice

so r u guys going to rest now

Minho

nah we have dance practice

Jisung

wait what

but you need to rest

you just were in a life or death situation

Minho shook Felix’s knee to attract his attention.

‘Hey, Lixie, do you want to skip practice today?’ He tried. ‘I can talk to the teacher and explain the situation.’

But Felix shook his head.

‘I’d rather get my mind off it by dancing,’ he decided. ‘Why? Do you want to skip practice, hyung?’

Minho smiled at him.

Minho

dont worry sungie we are okay

Jisung

>:(

next time ill be there to save you

Minho

welp thanks my knight in shining armour

but hopefully there wont be a next time

Jisung

knowing you babe

i doubt it

Minho frowned.

Minho

whats that supposed to mean

Jisung

did you really try to attack

a monster from another universe

with a pastry fork???

With a growl Minho put his phone away. He wasn’t going to just let himself be bullied like that, but Jisung wasn’t there to be smacked so he just settled for plotting his revenge later.

He actually came up with an idea, but that had to wait till his parents were out of town. It required a bit of rescheduling, but Hyunjin helped a lot. So, the very same weekend Minho had a whole day off and was able to invite Jisung over.

Not to the dorms, but to his actual house, where he used to live with his parents, who had conveniently let themselves be persuaded to go visit Minho’s grandma.

‘You are not choosing your own disguise ever again,’ he complained currently, eyeing Jisung. He had a big trench-coat over his signature red and blue suit, a bucket hat covering his head. Minho thought it made him stand out even more, but so far nobody payed them a second glance, so maybe Jisung wasn’t that bad at disguise.

‘But it’s working,’ Jisung retorted smugly.

Still, something felt off about this whole ruse. The abundance of clothing seemed rather unnecessary to Minho. It would have been so much easier to just go without the suit at all! But then, again, that wasn’t an option. Jisung had to protect his identity. Of course.

Even so, Minho couldn’t shake a feeling, like an itch to reach out a hand and touch not the silky fabric of the suit, but his warm skin. Minho didn’t know where the feeling came from, but it was persistent and extremely annoying.

‘Nice,’ Jisung said once Minho let him in. The house wasn’t particularly nice, to be honest. It wasn’t spacious or modern. It was rather plain if anything.

Jisung trailed to the living room and immediately found the family photos. They weren’t embarrassing, but showing them to someone was a gesture of vulnerability, something that didn’t come easy for Minho. He crossed his arms over his chest.

Jisung cooed.

‘Baby Minho was so cute,’ he looked up and his tone changed to unimpressed. ‘I wonder what happened.’

Minho scoffed.

‘I changed my mind, get out,’ he snapped without any heat.

Jisung laughed. The sound of his short barking laughter filled the room like the sunlight in the morning.

‘Okay, it’s time you meet someone,’ Minho remembered. ‘We can’t be friends if they don’t like you, by the way!’

He went around the house, looking for the most important tenants. Soonie and Doonie came out of their own volition, but Dori had to be coaxed to come to the living room with a snack. Finally, when all the three of them gathered together, Jisung plopped down on the floor.

‘Hello, kitties!’ Jisung greeted softly and let them cautiously sniff his hands. Soonie and Dori seemed satisfied with this inspection and flanked back to Minho. Doonie, however, not only let Jisung pet her, but even climbed into his lap and rubbed her head on his knee.

‘Doonie likes you,’ Minho commented, feeling a strange warmth bloom in his chest at the sight. Like his heart was pumping champaign instead of blood.

Jisung hummed, pleased.

‘I like her too,’ he replied absent-mindedly, scratching her gently behind the ear, and she purred. It was almost unbelievable how easily she warmed up to him. Minho had to win her trust back in the day, but Jisung just waltzed in, all safe, solid, nice and likable, and pleasantly smelling, and warm, and funny, and intelligent, and kind and whatever - and there she was already, purring contently in his lap. What kind of cat does that? Argh.

‘Since we’re here, I can cook something,’ Minho offered. ‘I’ll just have to check what’s in the fridge.’

Jisung glanced up from playing with Doonie for a second.

‘You can cook?’

Minho shrugged and got up.

‘Well, I’m not a chef,’ he said, rummaging through the fridge. ‘But… what do you say to kimchi bokumbap? We have some rice I see…I mean it’s nothing fancy…’

He looked back at Jisung over his shoulder. He expected him to be preoccupied with Doonie, but he was still looking at Minho. His whole posture presupposed an expression Minho couldn’t read. Judging from how he had his head tilted to the side and a comfortable slump of his shoulders where he was hugging Doonie, Minho would have said he looked thoughtful, wistful even.

If he could see Jisung’s face everything would be so much easier, he thought. He could still read him like that, sure, but sometimes… Sometimes he just really, really longed to see his face.

‘So?’

Jisung came back to reality and perked up.

‘Sounds good, babe,’ he said.

Minho turned away before the domesticity of his words hit him right in the face, tinting it pink.

He couldn’t say that he enjoyed cooking, but it wasn’t a hustle either. He sometimes did it even at home, and since they moved to the dorms together with Felix and Hyunjin he was in charge of preparing dinner more than not. Felix had taken to cooking some time ago, but to him it was more of a hobby. Minho just cooked food because he and people around him needed to eat.

The conversation was flowing comfortably while he quickly assembled the ingredients and fried everything adding them one by one.

Meanwhile Jisung made friends with Dori as well. Noticing this, Minho directed him to his old bedroom where their toys were kept. Jisung spent quite a few minutes there, probably examining his room.

After that he entertained the cats happily by playing with them. Minho sneaked glances at him from time to time. He was cute like this.

All the three cats left Jisung without any hesitation, though, when Minho made a distinct rustling noise with a bag of cat food. Suddenly they all remembered where their loyalty laid.

‘You may be their cool new friend,’ Minho said to Jisung, giving him the evil eye. ‘But I’m their appa who feeds them.’

‘Oh my god, Minho, I wasn’t going to steal your cats from you!’ Jisung claimed, affronted, and then stage whispered to the cats, covering his mouth with a hand. ‘I totally was, sweeties! I’m coming for you!’

Finally, the food was ready, and Minho brought the pan to where Jisung was seated. There was a coffee table in that part of the room for this exact purpose. Minho set the table and motioned for Jisung to start. When they were eating together Jisung didn’t turn away anymore, he just turned his head slightly, as if taking a shot of soju politely. He covered his mouth with one hand, and Minho tactfully avoided looking at him.

So now he did the same - looked anywhere else, but his face. Soonie joined them then, sniffing the air curiously, so Minho smiled and kissed her on her soft forehead, unable to resist.

Suddenly there was a hand on his face, a warm gloved hand that he knew too well. Caught off guard, Minho blinked at Jisung.

‘W-what are you doing?’ He shyly stuttered. He - Lee Minho - who had never once in his life felt an ounce of shame - blushed faintly, if the heat in his cheeks was anything to go by.

Not taking his hand away, Jisung gently stroked his cheek with his thumb. His fingers felt scorching hot despite the cool fabric of the glove.

‘You had something on your face,’ he explained, his voice distant.

Minho blinked at him. He really didn’t know what else he could do in that moment.

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to… make you uncomfortable,’ Jisung said, sounding self-conscious suddenly, and drew his hand away as if burnt.

Minho shook his head so hard one of his earrings hit him on the chin.

‘No! It’s okay!’ He then adjusted his voice so that it didn’t sound so thin. ‘I mean, we are close, aren’t we? So it’s okay.’

It pained Minho to see him uncertain, so he decided not to tease him. And Jisung did relax again.

‘Yeah, we are… close,’ he echoed.

Minho rolled his eyes.

‘Just eat already!’ And he put the spoon in Jisung’s hand to prompt him.

Fortunately for Minho’s heart, nothing out of the ordinary happened after that. Well, his parents did come home early unexpectedly, and he did have to push a distraught Spiderman wearing a trench-coat out of his childhood bedroom window, but honestly - that wasn’t the strangest person he had to smuggle out from that window, so his point stood.

He sort of wished he had taken a picture of Jisung doting over his cats, but that could be arranged again.

For some reason Jisung gave him radio silence after that. Minho was rather busy these days, so he only texted, after some time, a short and casual ‘is everything alright’. Half an hour later Jisung replied.

Jisung

yeah sorry

everything is great

im just working on something

ttyl okay?

im like almost done

He may have sounded a bit off, but maybe Minho was reading too much into it, so he let it drop. If he needed some alone time, Minho wasn’t going to be clingy and annoying, instead he was going to be an exemplary understanding and supporting friend.

Minho

sure take ur time sungie

hwaiting!!

Jisung didn’t reply, but he did say that he was busy, so it was okay.

Minho found out what he was working on anyway - a couple days later he got a notification from SoundCloud. Apparently, J.One posted something.

Minho grinned at the screen, delighted. He enjoyed Jisung’s music, so he was really looking forward to checking out this new track.

However, he only got some alone time at night. He was ready to go to sleep, when the unpushed notification caught his eye. He stretched a bit, then settled in comfortably.

He pressed play.

The song was called «Close».

It did things to Minho’s heart. He wasn’t sure whether they were good or not. The song itself was good, that’s for sure.

He couldn’t place it, but somehow this whole song felt like… like Jisung was talking to him? Some phrases there were literally ones he had said to Minho face to face. But other phrases were… confusing.

This whole song felt like a confession. Minho listened to it a dozen times on repeat, and each time this feeling only grew stronger. It was a distinctly Jisung-like confession. When he closed his eyes he could see Jisung performing it.

The feeling in his chest that was present every time he though about Jisung, or talked to him, or just sat next to him in silence - the one he didn’t want to name, but apparently didn’t have a choice now but to name, this feeling briefly turned into ugly jealousy. If it was a love song, who was Jisung singing it to? Minho desperatelydidn’t want him to be in love with someone. He couldn’t be singing his confession to anyone else, he just couldn’t.

But then he heard Jisung say «babe» again, as he did several times in the song, and he felt even more of that angry pathetic jealousy at the fact that Jisung called someone else baby, when it was Minho’s, it was the way he called Minho, and then it just hit him. It just hit him.

It hit him hard.

He liked Jisung. No, more than that - he probably loved Jisung. Huh.

But the thing was, there was a fat chance Jisung liked him back.

The feeling that he now had a name to swirled in him, like milk in black coffee. He was so full of this feeling it almost hurt. How the hell did he miss it?

It was late, but he opened the chat anyway.

Minho

we need to talk

come to the roof

Jisung

right now?

im kinda tied up

But still he answered right away. Minho sighed.

Minho

jisung i heard the song

and we need to talk

Jisung

ill b there in thirty

Minho sighed again, partly because of his pounding heart. He tried to calm down, even if only dealing with physical manifestations of his nervousness.

Since he had time, he changed from his pajamas into decent jeans and a sweater. Waiting inside felt unbearable, so Minho sneakily left the apartment and made his way to the roof. The cold wind bit into his open neck, and the air smelled wet.

Spidey was there in less than thirty.

‘Hey,’ he said, but it was clear he made his voice sound cheerful where in fact he felt lost and uncertain.

‘Hey,’ Minho echoed. He wanted to sound encouraging, but failed.

Heavy, uncomfortable silence fell upon them for the first time since they had met.

‘Um, so,’ Jisung gestured at the sofa. They both sat down stiffly. ‘You, um, you wanted to talk?’

Minho bit his lip. It wasn’t even one of his nervous habits, but he did anyway.

‘Yeah, right,’ he started. Why did it feel so awkward? Why was it so difficult to just breach the topic? ‘I heard the song you had been working on. «Close».’

Jisung almost flinched.

‘Oh, really?’

Minho nodded.

‘It’s… it’s beautiful,’ he said, inwardly cringing. ‘I loved it.’

Jisung hummed.

‘Right, so…’ Minho tried again. What was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he speak?

He looked at Jisung. The suit was covering all of him, but Minho still saw Jisung. The way he put his feet together at a sharp angle, making him look small, and the way his shoulders tensed, and the way his whole demeanor seemed almost scared. He didn’t want to see him like that. Jisung was a magnificent human being, he was resplendent, and stunning, and he deserved to always feel powerful, safe and loved.

So Minho remembered the song, how it made him feel. And then he just said what he thought.

‘I think this song is about me,’ he said. ‘Or at least I really, really hope so, because, Jisungie, you see - I like you. I’ve liked you for a long time, maybe even since we’d just met. I can’t believe I didn’t even notice falling for you, but then - I didn’t even stand a chance. It’s impossible not to fall for you, Sungie.’

Minho never knew it was so easy to just open his heart.

Jisung was looking at him, but his expression was a mystery.

‘You are a great friend, and I enjoyed every moment spent with you. And maybe I shouldn’t bring it up, because, well, we are good just like we are now, as friends. It’s just - like we clicked, you know? I just feel like everything is alright when I’m with you. Like when I dance - it may be challenging, but I just know that that’s where I belong. And when I’m with you - I feel like it’s my place, right by your side.’

Minho smiled at him, but Jisung sat unmoving. The air felt humid.

‘You make me so happy, Jisungie, you can’t even imagine. Like, when I’m having a bad day I just need to think about you, and that gets me through it. Knowing that later I’ll see you, and everything will be okay. And I want to be with you, even when I’m tired or just not in the mood for people, even then I just want to be with you, and talk to you.’

He was getting to the most difficult part, but as long as he didn’t think what he was going to say, it was easier to say it.

‘And… maybe that’s greedy of me. Maybe I’m reading it all wrong and you will hate me after this, but… I want to be more than friends, Jisung. I want to hold your hand, and hug you, and go on dates with you, I want to see your face and all of that, with you. So… I guess what I’m saying is… Jisung…’

Minho felt his throat dry and close up. Stubbornly, he gulped and carried on.

‘Will you be my boyfriend?’

He probably didn’t look very boyfriend material, cheeks red and burning, palms of hands sweaty.

Jisung kept silent throughout his messy confession. He kept silent now as well. Minho couldn’t see his face, but it didn’t feel like good-silent.

Did he… did he make a mistake?

‘Minho,’ Jisung said softly, and yes, he made a mistake, he made such a big mistake, he royally fucked up. ‘Listen…’

His face felt so hot just a second ago, but it suddenly grew very cold, like all blood left it.

A raindrop landed on his hand and he flinched. 

‘I don’t think it’s a good idea,’ Jisung said. He sounded on the verge of tears. Why was he the one ready to cry? ‘I just… I can’t, Minho. You don’t understand.’

And before Minho could pull himself together and ask to help him understand, Jisung sprang up, made it to the ledge in a few weightless steps and jumped. Feeling strangely numb, Minho watched him go.

Another raindrop snuck under his sweater collar, and then the rain started in earnest. Minho let it soak him through and through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so! much! for reading!! thank you for kudos and COMMENTS FUEL ME 
> 
> im on tw - @blzmchkArthur
> 
> I wanted to leave a list of petitions here, but I feel not educated enough rn, so maybe you can share some important links which I will put here ? idk how it works but I do want to help even a little bit


	10. Chapter 10

Minho was doing pretty okay. He really was. He might have felt like shit the morning after he got drenched, but that was probably just a slight cold. It went away after he had some hot tea. He felt so much better after that.

He had a lot of things to do, too. A busy schedule. Not that it wasn’t busy before, but these days it took up all of his time. He also realized that he had been missing from SNS and made up for the lost time, bombarding the fans with selcas and random videos and what-not. In the midst of performance stages he also decided on a whim to choreograph a dance to a groovy, sensual song he heard randomly in the mnet waiting room.

Felix and Hyunjin, of course, noticed that he wasn’t texting that much, plus the suspicious radio silence from Spiderman in the groupchat didn’t go unnoticed. They must have had a conversation about it in secret, because they didn’t ask Minho what happened and tried to avoid the topic whatsoever.

Spiderman wasn’t on the news much these days.

And Minho was okay. A few times he almost sent a funky photo to Jisung, but he caught himself every time and instead uploaded it on insta. He didn’t feel bad about it, he just didn’t feel anything. He ate the pizza ordered to the waiting room - the one they argued about with Jisung - and didn’t feel anything. He watched the ads of the tv show they discussed with Jisung and didn’t feel anything. He heard people around reference memes they quoted with Jisung daily and didn’t feel anything. He was honestly okay.

‘Hyung,’ Felix asked him one day out of the blue. ‘Are you okay?’

They were on their way back from a radio show recording where Minho was on his best behaviour. He smiled a lot, he made jokes, he teased the hosts same as his members. He was being Lee Know one hundred percent.

He eyed Felix suspiciously. Well, his side profile, to be precise, since he was taking backseat today.

‘I am,’ he said. ‘Are you?’

Felix fidgeted uncomfortably and sent Hyunjin a look. Minho didn’t miss that. Were they up to something?

‘Yeah, I’m good,’ Felix persisted. ‘It’s just that… You seem a bit down.’

Minho glanced at the driver, but the divider between them was up.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Lixie,’ Minho said. ‘Everything is great.’

But Felix was not having it. He clenched his knees, as if bracing himself for a dive.

‘Please, talk to us, hyung,’ he said in a careful tone laced with genuine worry. ‘You think we don’t see through your act? You are pretending to be okay, but you are not. We know you, and we care about you so much, and you are not okay.’

Minho looked out the window at the cars slowly swimming by. They were fish and he was at the bottom of the sea. He didn’t want to have this conversation. He was okay, maybe a bit tired, but that only made sense with all the schedule. He was tired and he didn’t want to talk about it now.

‘Even if something was wrong,’ he said slowly, eyes following one car that overtook them, bright red and stylish. ‘You can’t do anything about it. So what’s the point of me bitching and moaning?’

Hyunjin turned fully in his seat, with the safety belt cutting no doubt painfully into his neck and arm. He payed it no mind, glaring at Minho.

‘The point is,’ he said, sounding really angry. ‘That your feelings are important. Sharing them is not bitching, hyung. It is perfectly normal. It doesn’t make you, I don’t know, weak.’

Minho blinked at him.

‘And it isn’t bothersome or anything,’ Felix joined in, also turning in his seat. ‘We are your friends, we love you, hyung. We want you to share.’

Minho glanced from one of them to the other. He always knew the three of them were close friends and not just colleagues, but it never registered in his mind how strong their bond actually was. In a way they were his family, and all the fights he was willing to fight for them, all the long hours he spent worrying about them, all the blows he was willing to take for them - all of it went both ways.

‘I just…’ he started, uncertain. ‘I don’t know what I feel. Maybe I’m just better off not feeling. Just - not feeling.’

Felix sighed quietly, but there was no pity in this sound, so Minho didn’t mind.

‘Is it because of… him?’ He asked, and it was almost funny how he didn’t say his name.

Then, again, he didn’t know his name.

‘Yeah,’ Minho nodded. ‘Spidey and I, we… talked. I thought… I thought wrong. I misread the whole situation and ruined everything.’

Hyunjin frowned. His concerned, serious expression made him look older.

‘I don’t think you did, hyung,’ he said slowly. ‘Because I’ve seen you two together. If so, I misunderstood it as well, but that must be a pretty big misunderstanding.’

Felix hummed, agreeing.

‘Well,’ Minho said, a lump in his throat. ‘I was so sure that he liked me. I was almost certain. This damn song and just… I don’t know. I guess it was wishful thinking.’

Felix and Hyunjin shared a look again, but the dam he built around this whole mess cracked and more words flowed out.

‘I just…’ they suddenly got blurry. ‘I like him so much… I’ve never felt like this with another person. I really wanted him to like me back, so I must have… imagined it all. All those little things he did, I must have read too much into them - fuck, he might not be into boys at all!’

One of them handed Minho a tissue and he noticed that yes, he was in fact crying. He hated being like that, but the gentle attentive silence from Hyunjin and Felix only prompted him to spill more and cry even harder.

‘And it’s all so fucked up! I don’t even know what he looks like! Maybe he’s like that with all his friends, how the fuck would I know? And…’

He took a shuddering breath, the ugly truth on the tip of his tongue. He hid his face in his hands, as if trying to hide from it, but there was no hiding. It was true.

‘Deep down…’ he choked out. ‘Deep down I know he also felt it, but I’m just… unlovable. He felt something and didn’t act upon it, because I’m unlovable. I’m not someone who can be loved, not like that…’

The rest was drawn out by a fit of ugly crying he couldn’t contain anymore.

Instead of feeling appalled at the abominable mess he was, Felix wiggled between the seats and enveloped Minho in a desperate, rib-crushing hug. Hyunjin followed suit, and between them Minho couldn’t even cry loudly, because they all were pressed so tight and clumsy, with elbows protruding and legs stuck, there was barely any breathing space.

‘Don’t say that,’ Felix whispered and his voice sounded like he himself was crying.

Minho didn’t say anything at that. He just continued crying his heart out until he felt utterly empty.

They stayed like this until the van finally arrived and they had to scramble out the door in a mishmash of limbs. The driver looked at them weirdly, asked if everything was alright, but didn’t press it.

They didn’t talk about that anymore, but not like it was a taboo subject. More like everything was out in the open. Minho thought it would be embarrassing, but instead he just felt lighter. Not better or happier, but certainly lighter. Like maybe everything could be alright one day.

One night Felix knocked on Minho’s door.

‘Are you asleep, hyung?’

He was not asleep yet, mindlessly scrolling through his phone.

Felix opened the door and a sharp angle of light from the corridor fell on the floor.

‘Can you come out?’ Felix said. ‘Someone wants to talk to you.’

Minho squinted at him.

‘Someone like who?’

‘Someone harmless,’ was the answer.

So he put on some clothes and followed Felix to the living room area, where a whole ass Batman was sitting on their sofa. The black cloak draped over the arm of the sofa, armour on. He was wearing the mask, but his only covered the upper half of his face, like always.

Harmless, huh?

‘The hell are you doing here?’ Minho asked, too surprised to sound polite. There was literal Batman in his dorm - not the first superhero to grace this sofa with his ass, but the most unexpected one so far.

Batman looked at Felix.

‘You didn’t tell him?’ He asked.

Minho leveled a disbelieving look at Felix, who had the audacity to blush.

‘I was waiting for the right time,’ he mumbled, but then regained his composure. ‘It’s not important right now, we wanted to talk about something else.’

Minho looked back at Batman, who just held his gaze. Despite the whole broody vigilante thing, he looked like a teenager in his rebellious phase meeting his crush’s parents - pointedly not even trying to make a good impression.

‘Right,’ Minho said, and almost winced at how his first thought was to text Jisung that Batlix was real. ‘I’ll have the parent talk with you later, young man.’

Felix laughed a high-pitched laughter and pulled Minho closer to the sofa.

‘Oh-key,’ he exclaimed. ‘I’ll leave you two to that, since you will probably be talking about things I’m not privy to. I’ll be with Hyunjin!’

Before leaving, though, he sent Batman a blinding smile, just a tad flustered. He was adorable like that.

‘So,’ Minho took a seat opposite. ‘What are your intentions with Felix?’

Batman cleared his throat.

‘I came because of Jisung,’ he said, and all the playfulness Minho had in him was gone. ‘Because I’m tired of watching his miserable ass moping around.’

Minho found his unwavering gaze heavy to bear and looked down. The carpet needed some vacuuming.

‘Why would he be miserable?’ He asked, trying to sound calm.

Batman sighed, an angry but harmless sound. He started to understand Felix’s choice of words.

‘He is in love with you, after all,’ Batman said matter-of-factly and Minho choked on air.

He literally chocked and started coughing.

‘No,’ he argued bitterly. ‘He really is not.’

They locked gazes silently. Everything about this Batman person was intense, and so was his stare.

‘Believe me, Minho,’ he said, articulating every syllable. ‘He is definitely in love. He’s past the liking stage well on into loving. It’s kinda disgusting how much he’s in love with you.’

Minho might have misheard him because of the pounding of his own heart. It was echoing rather loudly in his ears. He was getting so angry.

‘He can’t be!’ Minho snapped. ‘Because I confessed to him and - that bit might be tricky for you - he doesn’t feel the same!’

Batman stayed cool and collected against Minho’s (a bit hysterical) anger.

‘Did he say it explicitly? That he didn’t feel the same?’

Minho threw up his hands. What was the point of this conversation? Was it some sort of practical joke?

‘Well, not in this words…’

He trailed off, not sure how to proceed. This whole conversation threw him off balance, and now he was confused out of his wits, and also pissed.

‘So, if all you said is true,’ Minho licked his lips, looking for correct words. ‘What the fuck is his problem then?’

Batman kept silent for a few bits. He was also looking for words, and however lost and exasperated Minho felt, he let him. At this point he just wanted some kind of answer. What exactly did he do wrong? Where did he mess it up?

‘It’s not really my place to tell you all that,’ Batman started, cautiously, and probably for the first time ever Minho realized that they were friends with Jisung, good friends who cared for each other. ‘But I’ve known Jisung for quite some time, and under the mask he is not always Spiderman. He is just a kid, you know. And this kid fell head over hills for you, Minho. And you have to understand… In his eyes you are perfect, and he is not.’

Irritation boiling inside, Minho jumped to his feet.

‘I am also fucking human!’ He couldn’t keep his voice down about this. ‘He can’t just choose for me what my reaction will be! Does he… does he have the audacity to think I only like him because he is a fucking superhero? That stupid fucker, I just can’t!…’

Batman let him storm around. Felix and Hyunjin also kept quiet. Minho paced around the sofa and kicked it for good measure.

‘Is he… is he deformed?’ He stopped in his rage to ask. ‘Is he extremely ugly in some way?’

Batman shook his head.

‘Even if he was, I would…’ he didn’t finish the thought. He couldn’t know what he would. Jisung didn’t let him find out.

Finally, all anger left him. He returned to his spot on the sofa, tired and deflated.

‘As I said,’ Batman noticed that he was back in the moment again. ‘I’m sick of his emo ass. I just wanted you to know… he loves you as fuck, Lee Minho.’

Minho blinked at him, confused.

‘Why did you want me to know that?’

Batman glanced at the bedroom doors where Felix left. Minho didn’t miss it. He rarely missed small things like that.

‘Just because,’ Batman said in an annoyed tone that Minho came to suspect was his own brand of caring. ‘Chin up, dipshit. Your prince just needs to man up and grow a pair.’

Minho felt his eyebrows raise.

‘Wow,’ he said. ‘That was incredibly sexist of you. Also - dipshit? I’m appalled. Don’t ever talk to me again.’

He watched Batman struggle for a good five seconds, then smiled.

‘I’m kidding,’ he added softly. ‘Thank you. But really - never say it again.’

Batman crossed his hands over his chest, which might have looked threatening if he wasn’t literally pouting.

‘Aw, fuck you too,’ he said, seemingly offended. ‘That’s what you called me back when we first met.’

Minho searched his memory. Somehow swearing at superheroes wasn’t an outstanding experience in his memory bank.

‘In that coffeeshop? I don’t even remember,’ he admitted.

Batman glanced at the doors again.

‘That’s okay,’ he said, his voice ninety percent softer. ‘You were worried about Felix.’

This time he didn’t snap out of it immediately. When he just thought of Felix his whole demeanor melted, and maybe the intense edge to his face didn’t soften, but it did take on a warmer shade. He looked like a tiger purring, still as dangerous as the roaring one, but with his guard down.

‘Uh-huh,’ Minho smirked. ‘So, back to the important topic. What are your intentions with my Felix?’

Batman gave him a sour look, totally unamused. He was surprisingly funny to tease, Minho found out, and he wondered briefly if Jisung thought so too.

‘Okay,’ he decided, too tired of thinking. ‘I’m gonna go sleep. Don’t make out on the sofa.’

In the end Batman was as cold as he was portrayed in the media - he threw a cushion at Minho for laughing when he sputtered.

When he woke up he felt better and there were no stray superheroes at their dorm.

He really did feel better this time.

He reached for his phone and almost without thinking typed a message.

Minho

you’re a fucking coward, you know that, sung?

He wasn’t bitter when he sent it. It was just a thing he wanted to say to him, so he did. They never actually fought before, but if that was a fight, this would have been the beginning of the warming-back-up-to-each-other phase. It wasn’t a fight, though, it was something so much bigger Minho didn’t know what to call it.

As he went about his day, he forgot about even sending this message. There were hundred and one more things to do, and he also absolutely had to interrogate Hyunjin to find out if he knew about Batlix (which he did, by the way, the traitorous donsaeng) and then punish him for concealing this vital information. Then they formed an alliance to tease Felix together, so the previous grievance was forgotten.

The minute Felix as much as breathed they took to the groupchat, having to settle for cyberbulling seeing how there were not alone in the waiting room.

Hyun_jinnie

Lix are you thinking about your BOIFRIEND??

LeeKnow

is that ur boyfriend smile

are you smiling cause youre thinking of your BOYFRIEND

Hyun_jinnie

Whipped Culture

Lixie00

guys T-T

pwease stawp

LeeKnow

nah go be cute to your BOYFRIEND it doesnt work on us anymore

Felix huffed, tips of his ears getting red. The make-up artist shot him a questioning look, but he just apologized and returned to the chat.

Hyun_jinnie

Oh my god he’s Blushing

Hyung are you Witnessing this as well??

LeeKnow

ah the young love

disgusteng

Lixie00

stop this slander >:(

i havent even talked to ~him~ since morning

Hyun_jinnie

My dearest Lixie… You didn’t just…

LeeKnow

no thats actually quite creative

we dont know his name right

and calling him batman now that theyre BoYFrienDS is

weird

Hyun_jinnie

Idk I think Batlix had a nice ring to it

Lixie00

batlix?

(´• ω •`)

LeeKnow

you dont need to worry about it

Lixie00

idk i suddenly feel like I should be worried

Hyun_jinnie

Hyung switch the topic Now

LeeKnow

so lixie my child tell me

how do you feel

about the fact that your BOYFRIEND

is shorty

Hyun_jinnie

ASDFKAHJG

Wait is he???

Lixie00

i hate this family

LeeKnow

youre adopted

Hyun_jinnie

So he is!!

Batman… is… shorty

LeeKnow

ngl hes kinda scary but

he small and angry

Lixie00

(・`ω´・)

Hyun_jinnie

It’s okay Lixie!!!

I mean you and Minho-hyung are also shorties!!

There’s nothing wrong with being Child Sized :^)

And thus Minho had no other choice but to chase a yelling Hyunjin through the waiting room and the long corridor in order to smack him for educational purposes. He still doubted it helped Hyunjin to respect his elders, but there was no harm in trying to beat the respect into him. Well, no harm for Minho.

The recording went on smoothly - them doing snippets of various choreos from their latest album, answering the hosts’ questions, playing with the audience a bit. Good old promotion drill.

They were left with free time on their hands, which Minho decided to spend on honing that choreography of his he had been putting together. It wasn’t finished, but since it was a side project he didn’t have to meet any deadlines. He could spend all the time in the world perfecting it. It was both a blessing and a curse.

Felix popped by and brought him an extra bottle of water, and Minho appreciated that gesture greatly. Felix didn’t stick around though, maybe because he was afraid that Minho would tease him more. Minho didn’t mind - living with other people you learn quickly to seize any chance to be on your own.

He almost didn’t hear his phone ringing over the sound of music. There just happened to be a silence a few beats long when the song came to an end and started again. Sweaty and thirsty, he paused the music, plopped down next to his bag and fished out his phone. 

The call was from Jisung. Minho just stared at the screen for a second, but picked it up quickly.

‘Hello,’ he said maybe too coldly.

There were sounds of the city on the other side - the cars whooshing by, people chatting and laughing and screaming, distant music playing over all of this.

‘Hello, Minho,’ Jisung echoed, and Minho hated how a tiny, but tenacious part of him relaxed instantly, just by hearing this voice. ‘You probably hate me now, but I still want to apologize.’

He paused. Minho listened to the vague background noise from wherever he was. He glanced down at the water bottle next to his bag and unscrewed the cap.

‘Apologize then,’ he said and gulped down half of the bottle.

Jisung cleared his throat.

‘You were right, Minho, I am a coward,’ he sounded so small, so ashamed and so hopeless, like it was not an apology, but his death sentence. ‘And in my cowardice I committed an unpardonable crime… I hurt you. Just the thought of you hurt breaks my heart, and yet I was the one who did it to you. I’m so sorry, Minho! I don’t know if you can forgive me, but believe me, I’d do anything, everything to make it up!’

Minho put the bottle down and threw his head back against the wall. From the corner of his eye he could see himself in the mirror. He looked sweaty and tired.

‘I just…’ he looked to the side. ‘Jisung, I’ve never… poured my heart out like that. When you just left, it hurt. And I can’t go back to that level of trust that easily, you know? So, if you want to be friends again-’

Jisung made a desperate sound.

‘No!’ He cried out, and then repeated, calmer this time. ‘No. I mean, I do want to be friends, but…’

He took a deep breath, collecting his thoughts or maybe his courage. Minho let him.

‘You see, you are too good to be true, Minho. You’re like a dream,’ he said, his voice too woeful for the words he was saying. ‘You don’t even realize how amazing you are. And for some time I managed to fool you. I made you believe in all that Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-bullshit. I made you see me as someone deserving your time, someone interesting, and cool, and worthy. And every time you said something nice, or looked at me with nothing but kindness, I knew it was a stolen blessing, and that one day it all is gonna come out.’

He took a breath. He didn’t sound like he was crying, but maybe he was just good at hiding it.

‘So when you… when you confessed… I knew it was the end of it. My time in this dream was up. Because I love you, Minho. I love you so much it scares me sometimes. But if you see me, the real me… I don’t think I’ll survive it. I can’t do this and lose you - or so I thought.’

‘Jisung…’ Minho whispered, not really understanding anything anymore. He didn’t have enough words in him to start explaining how wrong he was - or maybe he had too many.

‘No, wait!’ Jisung insisted. ‘That’s what I thought before! I kept thinking about it, and your text this morning - it just made me realize that more than anything I want to see you, even just one more time. Maybe I am a coward, but if it’s my cowardice keeping me away from you, I’m willing to fight it. I’ll risk it all for you, Minho.’

Minho couldn’t believe he was saying these things with such certainty and confidence. He felt his own eyes moisten, not crying, but ready to do so if given a push.

‘I’m on the roof,’ Jisung added. ‘If you don’t want to see me, that’s totally okay! But if you do, I’m here.’

Minho’s eyes wandered back to the mirror. The face of the man who looked back at him was kind of blurry.

He sighed, partially to check if he could speak out without betraying the pitiful state he was in.

‘I do want to see you,’ he said, carefully keeping his tone even. ‘Just not yet. I’m sorry, Jisungie, but… can you give me some time?’

He hugged himself, waiting for the answer.

‘Of course,’ Jisung said after a pause, sounding hopeful and disappointed at all. ‘Of course! Take all the time you need. I won’t push you.’

Minho smiled faintly, even though Jisung couldn’t see him.

‘I know you won’t,’ he agreed. ‘I just hope we can build this trust back.’

Jisung made a sound as if he wanted to say something, but caught himself.

‘Believe me,’ he said instead with a strange urgency to his voice. ‘I’m going to do everything in my power to earn your trust again. You’ll see. Goodnight, Minho.’

And before Minho could ask what he meant by that, he ended the call.

Minho sat there in the studio, trying to collect himself. He felt like his whole being was a sore wound, only starting to heal. It would heal and close eventually - but it needed to be left in piece. So he took a few steading breaths and stopped thinking about Jisung, and the way he made him feel, and the sound of his voice, and the warmth of his hands, and the way seeing him leave that day shattered his heart.

Felix came back to pick him up eventually, since he was going out anyway to buy some snacks.

‘Will you show me the choreo when you’re finished?’ He asked curiously.

And that was all the distraction Minho needed. They went over a sequence Minho felt was particularly tricky, since even it was technically perfect, it didn’t go that well with the song, but Minho couldn’t put his finger on why exactly. They spent almost an hour just playing around with different movements, different dynamics. In the end Minho didn’t find what he was looking for, but he did feel pleasantly empty-headed.

So he just carried on living.

A few days later Jisung sent him a good morning message, and he replied with an absent smile on his face. He didn’t miss the way Hyunjin shot Felix a pointed look.

‘Yes, it is Spidey,’ he said, acknowledging the elephant in the room. ‘I guess we’re back on speaking terms.’

Hyunjin hummed and nodded.

‘That’s good to hear,’ he said and they didn’t talk about it again.

After good morning and good night messages they fell back on the easy, non-committal chatting about everything and nothing in particular, like back when they first met. They were rediscovering their delicate relationship, fumbling for the ground they stood on now.

‘Are you going to meet up?’ Hyunjin asked one day, and for a second Minho was lost. They were having lunch, stealing the food from each other’s plates half-heartedly, everybody on their phones at the same time. But when Minho realized that he was probably smiling that dumb smile reserved for one idiot specifically, and both Hyunjin and Felix knew it very well by now.

‘I don’t know,’ he answered honestly, shrugging. ‘He didn’t bring it up lately. We could, I guess.’

Hyunjin cocked his head to the side, looking vaguely like a polite, but curious sighthound.

‘But do you want to see him?’ He asked.

Yes, Minho thought, and only then noticed how there wasn’t any other emotion to his immediate response other than eagerness. He wanted to see Jisung, and that was it. No second-guessing, no hesitation, no underlying hurt. He just wanted to see Jisung.

‘I am not against it,’ he said out-loud and hid his face behind the plate, inhaling his noodles. They finished eating in comfortable half-silence, with Felix stealing half of Hyunjin’s side dishes and Hyunjin whining about it.

Jisung didn’t show up at his dorm uninvited anymore, he didn’t even suggest meeting up. He was probably waiting for Minho to give him green light, he figured. After all, Minho was the one who asked for time. But now he didn’t know how to let Jisung now that he didn’t need time, he needed to see Jisung.

He could just say it exactly like this, of course, but the last time he said something like this it didn’t go well, so now Minho was rather apprehensive. He couldn’t help but think, absolutely irrationally, that he would jinx whatever they tried to build now.

That’s exactly what he was thinking, standing in front of the bathroom mirror one day and debating what to do with his hair. They were supposed to meet some new producer today, and the manager had told them to play nice, since this producer guy was close to them in age and was new to this whole Kpop slash showbiz thing.

‘We should become friends with him,’ Felix decided when the manager finished lauding the young producer and hang up. ‘If he’s such a gem, we should have him on our team when he comes up with something good. Can’t have him writing songs for other groups can we?’

Hyunjin grabbed his chest dramatically, probably aiming for the heart.

‘Felix, when did you turn this cynical?’ He shook his head unbelievingly. ‘It’s all Batman’s bad influence, I’m sure!’

Felix stick out his tongue to him and went to get dressed.

To be honest, Minho wasn’t really looking forward to meeting some music prodigy, much less babysitting him. He wasn’t good at being nice on command. So he ruffled his hair and put on just enough make-up to look intimidating, but not enough to tell that he did it on purpose.

He was right in disliking the guy before even meeting him, because he was late to the meeting. The three of them had time to get to the private room of a secluded restaurant, settle in comfortably and order drinks.

Minho was sipping on his iced americano when they finally arrived - the manager was leading someone to their booth. Minho had time to look this producer guy up and down. Somehow in his unfounded irrational hostility he didn’t even consider that the guy might be good-looking. Somehow he just managed to forget that sometimes people just were attractive.

The guy walked up to the booth and for some reason stared at Minho, visibly nervous.

He also was visibly very eye-catching. He had one of those faces you wouldn’t call exceptionally beautiful on the first look, but then you wouldn’t be able to tear your gaze away, so maybe there was something exceptional in him after all.

He had fluffy blond hair, and round eyes, and soft cheeks, and looked overall cute and sweet. But then again, his face was rather long, which Minho found sexy for reasons unclear even to him, and his gaze was intelligent and sharp, even when jittery like now, and his whole look was edgy and grunge, and he did look like someone who would be down to overthrow the government.

Minho blinked at this controversial character and only then realized that while he was staring at Minho, Minho was staring at him. Just the tiniest bit embarrassed, he turned to look at his americano instead.

‘Sorry for the delay,’ the manager shook his head. ‘But everyone’s here now. So, I believe some introductions are in order. Jisung-sshi, why don’t you go first?’

Upon hearing the familiar name Minho whipped his head around so fast he thought his neck would snap. Could he be?… But he immediately felt ashamed at his own reaction. Of course other people had this name. It wasn’t a rare name. Get a grip, Lee Minho.

But he felt his whole world tilt, when the new producer bowed politely and opened his mouth.

‘Hello! I’m Han Jisung, 20 years old, a beginning music producer. I’ll be working with you from now on, so, please, take care of me!’

Everything shifted out of focus for a second except for Jisung. His Jisung. The only Jisung that mattered.

Jisung was standing there, all real, and tangible, and so, so nervous, smiling at Minho timidly, his gaze questioning.

‘You’re here,’ Minho blurted out like a complete idiot, and extended a hand to hold onto him. Jisung let him feel up the sleeve of his leather jacket.

Seeing him like that was overwhelming - so many details to keep track of, like the way his eyes practically sparkled, or how even more huggable he looked now, or the highly kissable curve of his lips. He was the same Jisung he fell in love with - the same unprecedented sense of security he brought on with himself, the same drive and giddiness his mere presence instilled in Minho - but ten times more. Like a sunbeam amplified till it burned.

‘I-‘ Minho scrambled to his feet and looked around wildly. He needed to get out of here. He needed to get out, because Jisung was glowing and Minho was dangerously close to doing something he would regret later.

There was a restroom somewhere, he remembered.

‘I’ll be back,’ he blurted out and fled. He didn’t see the way everyone looked at him retreating. He didn’t care. His brain was on fire.

He found the restroom, locked the door behind himself and tried to take calming breaths.

Why was he panicking? There was absolutely no reason to panic!

Someone knocked on the door.

‘Minho, are you here?’ Jisung asked cautiously.

Minho glared at the door, his reason to panic calmly waiting for an answer.

‘No!’ He tried.

There was a distinct sigh on the other side, and then the door creaked agonizingly and opened. The lock remained locked, but with the door broken off the hinges it couldn’t do much.

‘Damn, I forgot you have superpowers,’ Minho mumbled when Jisung joined him in the small, but fancy restroom and carefully put the door back.

Jisung turned around with a shy smile and didn’t comment on that.

The just looked at each other for a long moment in an incredibly charged silence.

‘I can’t believe it’s you,’ Minho admitted, finally. ‘It’s like a feverish dream.’

Jisung chuckled. It was so strange to see his expression instead of having to piece it together from subtle cues and body language. 

‘More like a nightmare,’ he barked a short humorless laugh. ‘So, yeah. That’s me.’

Minho couldn’t stop staring at him, as if he would disappear if Minho as much as blinked. Jisung, on the other hand, looked to the side.

‘Now you get what I meant,’ he said. ‘Why I ran.’

Okay, that made Minho blink in mild confusion.

‘Can’t say I do,’ he confessed, lost.

Someone tried to open the door, but it got stuck in the doorframe and just screeched pitifully. They waited till the person gave up and left.

‘Well, that’s the real me,’ Jisung explained. ‘Han Jisung, 20. A nobody. And you are… you, Minho. You deserve the world. So… I’ll understand if you don’t want to see me again.’

Looking at him with wide eyes, Minho let out a helpless chuckle.

It was comforting to know that underneath that stunning appearance there still was the same idiot. Doubting everything in his pretty idiot head.

‘You don’t make any fucking sense,’ this came out highly exasperated. ‘Why wouldn’t I want you, Jisungie? I told you I loved you even when you were running around in colorful tights, do you think now that I know you look like that I’ll change my mind?’

Under Jisung’s shocked gaze he ran a hand though his already messy hair, so full of pent-up frustration it was either this or just jumping at Jisung and kissing him senseless.

‘Like, you should’ve told me you were insanely attractive, Sung, cause I’ve been imagining much worse things and nothing prepared me for the gay panic you gave me! Do you just walk around looking like that? You should have prepared me somehow!’

Jisung tried to get a word in, but Minho wasn’t done ranting.

‘If anything, I should be worried - like, there’s nothing much to me,’ he gestured between them frantically. ‘You are incredible in all respects, and I’m just… I’m weird! I say weird things and make weird sounds, and I yell for no reason! I’m mean to people, and I have a dumb sense of humour, and I need attention literally twenty four seven! I’m odd and awkward and annoying!’

He could say more, but it seemed like he got his message across. Though instead of recoiling in disgust, Jisung smiled. So that’s what his sweet smile looked like, Minho thought distractedly. Luminous.

And then, with this smile on, he cupped Minho’s face with his hands. Minho had always thought it was a myth, but he suddenly felt weak in the knees. So it wasn’t a figure of speech after all!

He was reminded of the time Jisung did something like this - they were at Minho’s, and hewas in full Spider-gear. Did he look like that back then? Did he smile like that?

‘You are,’ Jisung agreed. ‘You are such a pain in the ass.’

Minho grumbled, unable to look away from his stupidly attractive, beaming face.

‘And I love you so much because of it,’ he finished, smiling even wider.

The words rang through Minho’s suddenly empty head like a church bell.

Looking him in the eyes Minho realized - this was what you got after death for living a righteous life and helping the needy and things like that. You got moments like this, stretched throughout eternity, preserved in all their glory. Yours to relive, forever, and ever, and ever.

‘Oh,’ Jisung asked, voice dropping. ‘Are you crying? Did I do something wrong? Oh my god, I’m so sorry!’

‘Shut up!’ Minho smacked him on the chest with a fist. Yes, he was crying. He really needed to do something about it - so much crying lately. ‘I’m not sad, I’m happy!’

Jisung relaxed again. He wiped the tears off Minho’s cheeks, his fingers warm, and gentle, and loving. At least he wasn’t full on sobbing. Just got a little teary-eyed, no big deal.

‘Oh, really?’ Jisung grinned, cheeky little bastard. ‘Why’s that?’

Instead of answering immediately, Minho surged forward. He caught the surprised sound Jisung made in his throat when Minho hugged him. There it was, Jisung’s place - in Minho’s arms. The embrace closed up, and this was the safest place in the universe. Nothing could touch them like this.

This close up Minho could faintly smell his cologne.

‘Because my boyfriend is perfect, that’s why,’ he mumbled somewhere in Jisung’s jacket. He then got an idea and asked, worriedly. ‘You still want to be my boyfriend, right?’

He felt Jisung’s arms hug him even tighter. Enough to smother him a little and almost enough to be painful, to be honest, like he couldn’t restrain his power.

‘I want to be your boyfriend more than anything,’ he whispered, his hot breath fanning over Minho’s ear, and Minho laughed soundlessly into his shoulder. ‘I also want to kiss you very much, but like… Maybe our first kiss shouldn’t happen in a public restroom.’

To be completely honest, Minho wouldn’t have minded it much. To be one hundred percent honest, he wouldn’t have minded if Jisung kissed him at any location in the world, even the most disgusting ones. When it came to Jisung, he would have been happy to be kissed in the sewers, in a dumpster, whenever.

But he appreciated the sentiment.

‘Yeah,’ he agreed lightly, feeling giddy. ‘You should take me somewhere fancy first.’

They jumped and bumped foreheads when someone knocked on the door. This time more urgently.

With a sigh Minho detached himself from Jisung. What a terrible feeling it was. He immediately missed the comfort of his arms, but some things couldn’t be helped.

‘We should probably go back,’ Minho pouted, hating to be the voice of the reason.

Jisung hummed a sad, but content note. He was really good at combining opposites.

‘You’re right,’ he pushed the door easily out of the doorframe. ‘I’ll go first. But before that…’

With no warning he leaned into Minho’s personal space again and kissed him innocently on the cheek. Before Minho could do anything about it, like slap him, or kiss him, or yell at him (he didn’t actually know what his fight-or-flight response in these kinds of situations was), Jisung left.

Minho counted to three, looked at himself in the mirror. His eyes were rimmed with red, but that could be explained away. Disheveled hair lay down after he combed through it with his fingers. The shining eyes couldn’t be helped - and the sense of utter and complete happiness?

It was to stay with him for all the foreseeable future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to keep it short and finish at 10 chapters, but I guess my hubris is my own demise - so there will be another one :/ this is just too abrupt, but we needed to wrap it up  
> actually come to think of it I could've just broke this chapter in two but naaaaaaaaah me lazy 
> 
> I'm on twitter - @blzmchkArthur (it's mostly kpop)
> 
> THANK YOU LOVELY PEOPLE for reading this story!! It means so much to me - I never expected it to be received so warmly ( ᵒ̴̶̷̥́ _ᵒ̴̶̷̣̥̀ ) The kudos and the comments literally make my whole day, THANK YOU so much for leaving them!!!


	11. Chapter 11

More than two weeks have passed since the Restroom Incident and Minho barely saw his boyfriend. Turned out his genius plan of becoming a producer for the group to be close to Minho backfired and now he was constantly being dragged to numerous producing sessions and on the verge of being sent to some song writing camp. Add the university he still needed to attend on top of it all - and that was the recipe for whiny and annoying Minho.

Jisungie <3

i miss you too babe

but like

im in a lecture rn

Minho

but its an emergency

ur a superhero its ur duty to help

Jisungie <3

whats ur emergency

Minho

i need someone to hold my hand

Jisungie <3

k im gonna turn the notifs off for now

Minho made a face at the screen.

He didn’t how it was possible, but he felt at the same time the most loved and cherished - and also horribly neglected. Leave it to Jisung to inflict such drastic duality on other people.

So he had no other choice but to take the matter into his own evil hands. He liked to think of himself of evil sometimes.

To be honest, it wasn’t solely him doing the evil (not really) deed, he had to resort to Hyunjin’s help.

‘I hate doing this,’ Hyunjin complained. ‘You know I hate it, hyung!’

Unfazed, Minho continued to push his lanky donsaeng through the corridor. Hyunjin whined a lot, but he put up no fight and just let himself be dragged, so maybe he wasn’t that opposed. In all honesty he was probably more embarrassed than anything.

’Well, I would’ve handled it myself,’ Minho reasoned. ‘But half the company has a big fat crush on you, not me, Jinnie… Hence, here we are.’

«Here» was in front of the recording room, currently occupied by one of their vocal coaches. Hyunjin sighed. Very dramatically. All the misery and injustice of the world was summed up in this sigh. Any person with a heart would have been moved.

‘Good,’ Minho said, as he apparently didn’t possess a heart. ‘Do this and she’ll agree to anything.’

He knocked on the door, waited a second.

‘Don’t forget the puppy eyes,’ and having given the last instructions, Minho threw open the door, pushed the flustered Hyunjin inside and closed the door.

‘Erm, hello, noona!’ He heard Hyunjin stumble.

Okay, that was as good as dealt with. Now he had to get Jisung’s timetable straight to prepare properly for D-day where stars aligned and their own work and study schedules didn’t clash.

D-day took place on a chilly Friday.

Minho checked the time, put on as much fluffy clothes as the society deemed acceptable, though about applying some make-up but felt too lazy for that, and then went to get coffee. He wasn’t in a hurry. If anything went according to plan, he still had time.

When he approached the company building, noona they had conspired with was just leaving. He turned away, trying to be inconspicuous, but she seemed distracted anyway and didn’t notice him. Clutching the coffee holder in his (evil) hands he pressed the lift button and congratulated himself on being (an evil) mastermind. Maybe their dynamic with Spiderman was supposed to be enemies-to-lovers all along?

Before going in he checked himself in the front camera. Maybe he should have put on just a bit of make-up, he thought. He wanted to look his best for Jisung, and right now he definitely didn’t look his best - his hair was getting in his eyes and his face looked all weird. Also, the glasses and the fluffy sweater and jacket didn’t exactly make him the sexiest person alive.

But then he thought about Jisung in that room, doing his genius-musician thing and being the most adorable human being to grace this bitch of an Earth, and next thing he knew he was knocking on the door.

Jisung turned over in his chair, an alarmed expression on his face, when Minho entered without waiting for ant acknowledgment.

‘Oh,’ he said softly. ‘It’s you.’

His alarm immediately morphed into surprise, and Minho didn’t miss the way his eyes lit up upon recognizing him. He was so cute like that, eyes open wide and mouth forming a soft O, it must have been illegal in some country at least.

Jisung was dressed casually in a dark oversized hoodie he was drowning in, black ripped jeans and white sneakers. A red beanie crowned his head. He looked caught off-guard like this, not dolled up, but so tangible, and approachable, and real. So real.

He was real and he was Minho’s to look at and to hold hands and to send dumb messages back and forth and maybe, if they didn’t mess it up, to kiss. Minho smiled at him.

‘Surprise. I brought you coffee,’ he declared and joined Jisung. He plopped on the vacant swivel chair and rolled closer to him.

Jisung, this adorable surprised expression still on, looked at the cup Minho was holding out for him.

‘Thanks,’ he said, shyly, and when their fingers brushed over the cup his cheeks turned faintly pink. Deep in his soul Minho screamed in the imaginary pillow.

They sipped their coffee in silence. Jisung seemed a bit tense, sneaking glances at Minho. It was cute and maybe Minho should have reminded him that they were, in fact, boyfriends, so there was no point getting shy around him, but shy Jisung was a nice change of pace. He sort of was glad to not be the blushing mess in their duo for once.

‘Noona said she’ll be back soon,’ Jisung said and glanced at the door. ‘Is it okay that…that you’re here now? Isn’t it?…’

Minho grinned that smile he reserved for stage, when he was dancing a particularly sensual dance. If the fans could be trusted on that, it was a positively sinful one.

‘Well, we are not doing anything…’ he lowered his tone and moved closer. ‘Scandalous, are we? At least, not yet…’

Jisung turned a shade darker.

‘R-right!’ He said. ‘We’re not!’

Minho admired his panicked blush for a second and moved away.

‘But yeah, noona’s not coming back today,’ he finished in a regular, less sexy voice. ‘I set it all up for us to finally spend time together.’ He frowned, suddenly noticing all the flaws of his plan. ‘But, if you need to focus, I can leave? I mean, I shouldn’t just barge in like that when you’re working. You’re probably busy…’

He hadn’t though it through, now he saw it. He was being selfish for intruding on Jisung’s work, especially now that he had so little free time.

‘No!’ Jisung grabbed his arm, as if Minho was going to run away. ‘No, stay. Please.’

His initial grip was almost painful, but he immediately adjusted the force with which he was holding Minho’s hand. Carefully he took both Minho’s hands in his.

‘I missed you, babe,’ he added with a smile. Oh, things that smile did to Minho’s heart.

His glasses slipped to the tip of his nose, but nothing could make him let go of Jisung’s hands at that moment. If he were a cat he would be purring loud as a car engine.

‘By the way,’ he said. ‘How dare you call me that? You do realize I’m your hyung?’

Jisung blinked at him with an incredulous expression of a man who was less than one minute late for his flight and still wasn’t allowed on board. Like it was, technically, his fault, but he didn’t expect anyone to call him out on it, since it was such a trifle.

‘What?’ He said.

Minho caressed his hands with his thumbs. He had the high ground again.

‘You are 00-liner, Sungie,’ he said sweetly. ‘Which makes me your hyung. And that’s what you should call me.’

Jisung had the audacity to roll his eyes - and where would he pick up such an unbecoming habit?

‘Okay!’ He shook his head. ‘From now on I will call you hyung. Are you happy now, Minho-hyung?’

He was, but like hell he was going to admit it. So he just scoffed and looked to the side, where the recording equipment happened to be located.

‘How’s it going?’ He asked, curious. ‘Are you supposed to write a whole song from scratch?’

To his surprise, Jisung laughed.

‘That’s how it usually works, b- hyung,’ he caught himself in time, but Minho still slapped him lightly on the shoulder.

Jisung didn’t look sorry at all, if anything, he had an amused glint in his eyes. Minho rolled his eyes at him.

‘You know what I mean,’ he pouted.

Jisung looked at the screen with a calculating look in his eyes.

‘Okay,’ he said and without any warning rolled Minho’s chair, as well as his own, closer to the screen. ‘I’ll show you.’

He saved the progress, clicking more times than was strictly needed, and opened another file.

‘So,’ he explained, looking at the screen. ‘This time I’m trying to write a song for a specific voice. For you, guys, actually. That’s why I needed your vocal coach noona today - she explained to me how to better implement melody to show off your voices. I’m kinda getting the beats for Hyunjin and Felix right, but with you it’s tricky, since I usually have my own vocals in mind when I compose melody. You have a very different range, so I can try things I’ve never tried before. Your voice is very pure, very angelic, and I’m trying to find the balance between the heavy rap and your sweet vocals that should be… you know, not overused…’

He was totally rambling, but Minho didn’t mind. He always loved Jisung’s voice, but right at that moment there was something magical about it. How lucky he was to just sit there and witness the inconceivable constellation that was Han Jisung.

‘Do you wanna have a listen?’ Jisung glanced at him. He might have been nervous to suggest, but not that much. After all, he knew already that Minho loved his music. ‘It’s justan outline, though.’

Minho smiled and fixed the glasses on his nose.

‘Sure,’ he said.

Jisung passed him a pair of massive professional headphones. As soon as he put them on, the sounds disappeared. Jisung said something, but it came out muffled. Since he didn’t wait for confirmation, it probably wasn’t important.

Jisung clicked play. The song, half-cooked, unpretentious, newborn, filled his ears.

As it was with Jisung’s music, even at this stage it sounded great. Minho could tell it brewed potential. He knew music like he knew the steps to his favourite dance - not in heart, not in mind, but in the space between two breaths, quicker than thought. That’s why he became an idol, after all. He didn’t produce music, but he knew it.

And Jisung’s was the real deal.

His gaze shifted from the screen to Jisung’s face. There he was, the person who made this music. God, he was beautiful, inside and out. His thoughts were beautiful, and passionate, and real; and his smiles were bright, and lovely, and real.

Minho noticed that he wasn’t wearing any make-up either, and all the little imperfections made him even more real, and more stunning. He saw his lips moving. He didn’t hear anything but the music, but it looked like his name on Jisung’s lips.

He was so close, he noticed, and it almost didn’t register in his mind that he was now leaning into Jisung’s personal space. At some point he lost his balance and caught himself by putting his hands on Jisung’s shoulders. He didn’t stop though.

He was so hot under his hands. All he heard was Jisung, and all he saw was Jisung, and everything around him was Jisung, Jisung, Jisung.

They locked gazes. Minho leaned impossibly close. And then they closed their eyes and kissed.

His lips were soft and scorching hot, but inside of his mouth wasn’t that burning, and he tasted like whipped cream and coffee, and kissing him was too good to be true, but he didn’t care. It was real. Jisung was real, and he was kissing him.

Until he wasn’t.

Minho opened his eyes when Jisung gently, but steadily pulled away. He was kind of surprised to see that the world was still there. He also noticed that the music had stopped at some point.

Jisung was looking at him with the expression Minho had never seen on him before. His pupils were blown wide. He was afraid to decipher it, but he also longed to understand it. That was so Jisung - to make him feel two opposite things at once.

‘Are you sure?’ He asked. At least that’s what Minho read on his lips. He might have been wrong, because looking at his lips made him want to kiss them again. But Jisung asked a question, and he needed to control himself, so he bit his own lip to prevent himself from doing anything.

Jisung cupped his cheek, the headphones and glasses getting in the way. Carefully, slowly, Jisung slipped the glasses off his face, then the headphones. It felt like undressing when he was looking at him like that, as if he could see Minho’s whole soul.

’Are you sure?’ He repeated, his hot breath fanning over Minho’s lips. This time he heard it clearly. Was Jisung’s voice always like this, sending shivers down Minho’s spine?

The chair dipped when Minho leaned even more on Jisung’s shoulders and put his hands around his neck. How was he so hot to the touch? How was he so hot, with his perfect lips, and his kind eyes, and his firm shoulders, and his tender touches?

‘Of course I’m sure,’ he murmured, not even ashamed at the way his voice turned high and needy. ‘I love you, you idiot. Now shut up and kiss me, Sungie.’

Jisung smiled briefly, and then he pulled Minho closer and closer, until he was sitting in Jisung’s lap fully, and the chair squeaked, or maybe he did, and the next second Jisung was kissing him, he was kissing him, he was kissing him.

***

To be honest Minho never followed the news consciously, yet somehow he always ended up more or less aware of what was going on in the world. However, when he had got himself a superhero boyfriend (and also his baby brother got himself a vigilante boyfriend) the news became much more relevant. What had been just general background information then hit closer to home now.

So when he noticed from the corner of his eye a screen flashing news, and the familiar figure darting across this screen, he immediately went to the news outlet on YouTube he now followed for that purpose specifically.

The news anchor yelled their running commentary at the camera over the fire roaring and people screaming.

‘It seems like Superman and Spiderman have the situation under control,’ they explained, glancing over their shoulder.

Minho was only looking at Jisung. His tiny figure flew across the screen trying to subdue what seemed to be a dragon. He looked okay. He was doing okay.

Minho breathed slowly and steadily. Jisung was fine.

And exactly when Minho let his guard down the dragon stomped and kicked a whole bus, which flew in Jisung’s direction. The quality wasn’t very good, so it was hard to tell why he didn’t dodge. He had a whole superpower devoted exclusively to making him good at avoiding things that tried to hurt him, but he didn’t dodge. The video went grainy for a moment, then Jisung was lying on the ground, struggling to get up.

Minho watched him scramble to his feet and leave the scene on foot. He didn’t even fly on his web. He just… hobbled away.

His manager touched his hand and Minho flinched.

‘Hey, Minho, are you okay?’ He asked, sounding worried.

Minho caught his gaze and made himself look calm. He counted to three and made himself look calm. Jisung was alive. He left on his own feet.

‘Sure, hyung,’ he smiled. ‘Why?’

Manager looked at him for a second with a stern, medical gaze of a man turned babysitter against his will. But then he smiled back.

‘Never mind,’ he said.

Minho held his gaze for an appropriate amount of time to look polite and respectful, then returned to his phone, shielding it so slightly against his body.

Minho

youd better be bright and breezy when i see you today

Jisung didn’t answer, if course. He was probably dragging his sorry ass to the nearest safe spot to get changed into his civilian clothes.

Minho

dumbass

Then the car arrived, Minho put his phone away and tried to focus on his work. He was supposed to meet up with Jisung later today anyway. He could give him a piece of his mind later.

Later happened unexpectedly soon when a confused Felix beckoned him with a finger.

‘What?’ Minho mouthed at him through the glass door.

Felix looked to the side, listened to somebody else’s words and beckoned him again with a more exasperated face. For Felix it was just a slight eye roll, but it was telling.

‘Fine,’ Minho mouthed, wiped his brow and turned to the couch. ‘Excuse me, couch, I need to go out for five minutes!’

Mrs Kim shot him an annoyed look, but let him go.

‘What?’ Minho asked as soon as he left the studio, all sweaty and not happy about being interrupted. Felix just nodded to the side.

Minho followed his gesture and saw a guilty looking Jisung smiling at him. He waved and winced. Minho got a vivid flashback of meeting him near the same studio. He was in full spidergear back then, but he waved exactly the same - cheerful and adorably awkward.

‘Thank you, Felix,’ Minho said calmly, not looking at him, grabbed Jisung by the wrist and dragged him to the nearest bathroom. Jisung kept silent on the way.

Having checked the stalls and locked the door, Minho turned around to look at Jisung and crossed his arms over his chest.

‘Okay,’ he said coldly. ‘Explain.’

Jisung quirked his eyebrows.

‘Explain what?’

‘Why you didn’t get out of the way,’ Minho said. ‘I saw everything. That bus wasn’t even that fast, and you almost let it hit you on purpose.’

Jisung shuffled awkwardly.

‘Well,’ he said of all things. ‘You love cats.’

Minho blinked at him. Then he blinked some more.

‘I beg your fucking pardon?’ If he wasn’t angry before he sure was getting angry now.

Jisung came to him and tried to hold his hands, looking him in the face pleadingly.

‘Hyung, you love cats!’ He said as if it explained anything.

Minho shrugged his hands off. He tried to keep calm and count to ten or whatever you’re supposed to do.

‘Let me get this straight,’ he started quietly. ‘You willingly got yourself hurt because I love cats?’

Jisung made sad puppy eyes at him and nodded.

‘Let me check your pupils,’ Minho said calmly. ‘I think you have a concussion, you don’t make any sense.’

Jisung batted his hands away.

‘I’m fine!’ He hugged himself, a tint of pink on his ears showing that he was embarrassed by what he was going to say next. ‘It’s just… there was a cat there. It could get hurt. And when I saw it, it’s like… you were there with me. I know it sounds weird, hyung, don’t laugh!’

Minho shook his head.

‘No,’ he pointed a finger at Jisung’s chest, though not touching in case he was hurt. He had been hit with a bus, after all. ‘If I were there, I would tell you not to take stupid risks, Sung. I would never want you hurt. It’s like you don’t even know me!’

Instead of getting offended, Jisung laughed his short barking laughter. This one was for times when he was genuinely amused and didn’t try to hide it.

‘I know you would, hyung,’ he smiled, too serene for a guy who was currently screamed at by his boyfriend. ‘You would tell me to stay safe. But then you would run into danger yourself trying to save that damn cat. No superpowers, no shield - and you still would do that. Am I wrong?’

Minho narrowed his eyes at him.

He always though himself to be cautious, a far cry from daredevil. But then again, he would definitely try to save a cat. He was a decent human being. It was only natural.

‘Okay,’ Minho gave up. ‘You might be not completely wrong.’

Jisung beamed at him.

‘But,’ he couldn’t just let it go. ‘Don’t do that again.’ Jisung wanted so say something, but Minho shushed him with a finger to his lips. ‘I get it, Sungie. It is your job to protect people. Spiderman is who you are. And I love and respect you for being a hero, among other things. But when you want to protect others, I want to protect you. I can’t watch you getting hurt, Sungie, it breaks my heart.’

His eyes that were shining like stars just a moment ago turned deep and serious. There was a whole world there, a world Minho could spend a lifetime charting and still wouldn’t discover all of it. He was thinking something, looking back into himself, into this world.

Minho waited in silence.

‘I will always come back to you,’ Jisung said slowly, finding the words as he spoke. ‘I said that already, remember? Even if I have to do the impossible, for you I will. But some things I can’t promise, baby. I can’t say I’ll never get hurt again. Because your trust is important, and I won’t break it by giving empty promises. I can try not to, but I will get hurt. It’s just how it is.’

And there was no arguing with this, no doubting, no denying. It was honest and it was the truth.

‘I’m sorry,’ Jisung whispered, his tone sad and broken, and next thing Minho knew he was hugging him close. That’s where he belonged, in Minho’s arms, and maybe he couldn’t protect him from the world, but damn he would keep trying. 

‘No,’ Minho whispered fervently in his hair. ‘You didn’t do anything wrong, I’m sorry. You’re perfect and I got angry like an idiot.’

Jisung giggled, the sound making Minho giddy like fizz bubbles.

‘It’s okay,’ he said lightly. ‘You’re cute when you’re angry.’

And that was the right Jisung. The annoying, confident, smiling Jisung. One of his favourite Jisungs and certainly the one that suited him the most.

Minho elbowed him slightly in the ribs for getting cocky.

‘Ouch,’ he gasped softly, and Minho immediately pulled back. He rolled up Jisung’s sweatshirt and the shirt underneath it and winced. His whole torso was basically one big bruising.

‘Oh no,’ he lamented. ‘Your beautiful abs… Your sexy beautiful abs…’

Jisung giggled again and slid a hand around Minho’s neck.

‘They’ll be back before you know,’ he promised. ‘I heal fast.’

He pulled Minho closer again. It never failed to surprise Minho how hot he was to the touch. Probably a side effect of his superpower or something. Whatever it was, his touch always felt different, more intense.

Jisung leaned in within the kissing distance, but then drew in a surprised breath when Minho picked him up and sat him next to the basin. Minho got closer, closer, until he could whisper in Jisung’s ear.

‘As much as I’d like to stay here and make out with you, my dance teacher is waiting.’

Jisung growled, frustrated, but however annoying he could be, he wasn’t the difficult one in this relationship.

Minho pecked him on the cheek, winked and just left him there. Suited the little shit well for scaring him.

***

The fact that Jisung indeed was a real person and not some fever dream he made up sank in when he got an unusual invitation.

Jisungie <3

or we could stay

at my place

lix said you are free on weekends

we could get take out

and watch something

only if you want ofc

Minho somehow didn’t expect Jisung to have a «place». In some respects he still viewed him as Spiderman, who had a lair, maybe a base, but not a flat.

So later that day when his taxi stopped in front of a modern-looking apartment complex he double-checked the address. But yeah, that was it. He threw his backpack over one shoulder and just eyed the building for a moment, grounding himself.

Jisung opened the door as soon as Minho rang the bell, as if he was lurking there waiting. He also immediately pulled Minho inside and into a tight hug. The apartment smelled vaguely like Jisung and Minho felt himself immediately relaxing against his embrace. Why was he even worried?

‘Hello, beautiful,’ Jisung mumbled into his ear, a bit ticklish, and kissed him softly on the cheek. Minho couldn’t help giggling.

‘Okay, let me go, I wanna see the place,’ he grumbled finally. Jisung stubbornly smooched him one more time before letting go.

The flat turned out to be tiny, which explained how a student with a part-time job (well, two jobs now) could afford it. Decorated in neutral natural tones the whole place looked unexpectedly cozy. In the daylight it must have looked sunny, if large windows were anything to go by, and now it just felt calm and safe. It was a lovely apartment that has a nice vibe to it. 

It was also a mess.

‘I cleaned up a bit, but…’ Jisung defended himself. ‘Trust me, hyung, I don’t always live like that! It’s just that lately with everything going on I didn’t really have time to…’

Minho sighed and Jisung stopped talking.

‘Well,’ Minho dropped his bag on the spot on the sofa that wasn’t strung with books, pillows and wires of questionable function. ‘I guess it’s enough that at least one of us is tidy. Both would’ve been too perfect.’

Jisung kicked a stray t-shirt under the sofa.

‘I swear I’m normally better than this,’ he insisted, but didn’t try to cover up any more traces of the utter catastrophe that his daily routine must be.

Minho took one more look at the living room and proceeded to examine the kitchen (painfully empty, though he didn’t check the fridge), the bathroom (pretty okay) and the bedroom (also messy, but still very nice, totally would just plop down on the twin size bed, 9/10).

‘Let’s order something,’ Jisung chirped in just as Minho was about to flip through a random book he picked from the aforementioned bed. ‘Are you hungry?’

Minho shrugged and dropped the book back.

‘I could eat,’ he decided.

Jisung fished a laptop from between the books on the floor and opened it, settling down in the same spot. Without a second thought Minho sat behind him and put his chin on Jisung’s shoulder, also looking at the screen. Jisung didn’t protest being the small spoon, so Minho nudged closer, relishing in the way Jisung’s warmth filled in the space between his arms.

‘What are you craving, hyung?’ Jisung had a tab of some take-out site already open in his browser. ‘This place is really nice, I always order from them.’

Trying not to dwell on how his brain melted a bit when Jisung called him hyung, Minho hummed. He didn’t particularly care, so Jisung ended up picking food for the both of them, but they didn’t rise then. Instead they chilled on the floor like two responsible adults on their official day off.

‘I was wondering,’ Minho said. ‘Where do you keep the suit? Like, just in the wardrobe?’

Jisung was browsing through Netflix.

‘Well, yeah,’ he said. ‘Sometimes I leave it at Batsy’s, though. He adds upgrades to my gear when he feels like it.’

‘Wow,’ Minho said. ‘I knew Batman was loaded, but I didn’t realize he’s also that smart.’

Jisung abandoned Netflix to turn and look at Minho.

‘How did you know he was loaded?’ He sounded surprised.

Minho rolled his eyes at him affectionately.

‘Sung, he has technology possibly more advanced than the military, and just this month he drove two different jet-black cars, one through the city and the other literally up the building. Of course he has money.’

Jisung turned back to his laptop.

‘When you put it like that…’ he mumbled. ‘But yeah, he’s hella rich.’

‘Must be nice to have a chaebol friend,’ Minho mused.

Jisung whipped his head around again.

‘And how did you know he was a chaebol?’ He asked, more suspicious than surprised this time.

‘It’s really not that hard to guess,’ Minho shrugged a bit, rocking them together by the motion. ‘How else would a guy of his age happen to be extremely rich?’

Jisung patted Minho’s hands on his waist.

‘My boyfriend is so smart,’ he sing-sang in a cute voice.

Determined not to show that the playful compliment touched him, Minho replied evenly.

‘Lucky you! Mine is dumb.’

He giggled when Jisung elbowed him in the stomach. It didn’t hurt even a little bit, because despite all his superpowers Jisung would have never hurt him. At least not on purpose, although he might have unknowingly made his chest constrict a few times with how cute and amazing he was.

Soon the food arrived and they sat in the kitchen at the small table that Jisung had probably never used in all his time living in this apartment. Jisung had put on a seemingly random playlist of western songs and Kpop jumbled together, and the music was playing muted in the background. The sun was setting down already, bathing everything in a soft, golden glow. Jisung looked ethereal right then and there, in his small plain kitchen, cheeks full of noddles and fingers of his free hand tapping a scattered melody on the table, hair messy and face bare. His whole existence felt like a magnetic pull to Minho, like he was a supermassive star to Minho’s lonely astronaut. 

I need to remember this moment, Minho thought, and some time in the future I’ll look back at it and know for a fact that I was happy.

At one point Jisung raised his head and met Minho’s gaze. He smiled.

‘Here, hyung,’ he pinched a piece of chicken in his bowl and held it out for Minho to bite. ‘Try some of mine.’

This trivial act made Minho notice once again how he always felt inexplicably cared for with Jisung. There was nothing special about sharing food, they did it all the time with Hyunjin and Felix. But with Jisung it was more… intimate. Boyfriend-y.

Carefully, like a polite cat, Minho took the offered piece.

‘You look like a squirrel when you eat,’ he commented, chewing.

Jisung pouted, but with his cheeks puffed out like that it only added to the resemblance. Minho couldn’t help poking his cheek curiously, at which he squeaked indignantly and batted his hand away.

‘Cute,’ Minho concluded with a fond smile and Jisung’s ears took on a shade of pink.

‘Shut up,’ he retorted eloquently, a poet as always.

Despite all his diligent surfing, Jisung failed to find a movie to satisfy all their criteria. In the end they decided that there’s probably not a single movie in the world that at least one of them haven’t seen, so they settled on an anime that a fan had recommended on one of Minho’s lives.

‘Okay,’ Jisung opened the first episode and then turned to Minho with a sheepish expression. ‘Do you want to, maybe, lay down on the bed? Like, we can cuddle.’

‘Oh my god, yes,’ was the immediate response. He was going to check out this bed for himself after all.

He hurried to the bedroom without even waiting for Jisung and fell on the bed, hugging a pillow to his chest. He let go of it, though, when Jisung set awkwardly on the edge, holding the laptop with a hesitant expression.

‘What are you doing?’ Minho tugged him by the shirt. Jisung obediently scooted closer and closer, holding the laptop up like a loaded firearm, until he was enveloped fully in a hug, his head on Minho’s chest.

Minho let out a content sigh and without further ado Jisung angled the screen a bit and pressed play.

Now, part of Minho, the one that was kept to himself only, purred, comfortable and happy. As far as dates went, this was one of the best.

But Jisung kept pausing the damn anime every three minutes to point something out.

‘Wait, did you notice the…’ he paused again and Minho rolled his eyes, equal parts endeared and annoyed. In the process he did notice something, though it wasn’t related to the show.

‘Is that a guitar?’ He cut off, squinting at the object on top of the wardrobe. He really couldn’t fully make it out, since he wasn’t wearing glasses or lenses.

Jisung turned around, his weight shifting on top of Minho pleasantly.

‘Oh, yeah,’ he confirmed, his tone disinterested. ‘I totally forgot it was there. Haven’t played in a while.’

Minho sat up in bed and Jisung rolled off him, taken aback.

‘I wanna hear you play!’ Minho announced.

Obviously not seeing what the big deal was, Jisung shrugged, still laying next to him.

‘I never said I was good at it,’ Jisung warned, but reluctantly got up and reached for the guitar. He had to stand on his tip-toes and Minho giggled at him. Jisung made an unamused face and sat at the foot of the bed, facing Minho.

Minho didn’t know much about guitars specifically, but even to him it was clear Jisung’s skills were indeed rusty. He held the instrument with the familiar fingers and pensive face, remembering as he went.

Without much thinking Minho snapped a photo of him like this - quietly humming to himself, softly strumming, a thoughtful crease between his eyebrows and hair falling into his eyes.

And then Jisung started playing a song. He wasn’t exceptionally good, this much was true, but his gentle and somewhat uncertain strumming gradually grew more stable and recognizable. He wasn’t looking at Minho, too focused on remembering the chords, and Minho loved to see him so immersed.

He didn’t recognize I’m Yours until Jisung started singing along in his perfect sexy English. It was almost unfair how his voice sounded so smooth and rich and warm and when he started slapping the guitar to create rhythm his imperfect impromptu cover turned into full-on performance. Minho swooned inwardly, a bit awestruck, but then Jisung just killed him - he sang the chorus looking Minho dead in the eye.

‘It cannot wait,’ he sang, not even smiling, face open and vulnerable. ‘I’m yours.’

Minho waited till he finished.

‘So, was it what you wanted, hyung?’ Jisung asked with a shy smile. He sounded genuinely uncertain, as if there really was a way out there for him to disappoint Minho somehow. As if there actually existed a possibility of Minho not being impressed at literally everything he did.

Not trusting his words, Minho surged forward and kissed him. The guitar got in the way, so the angle might have been a bit awkward, but he cupped Jisung’s stupid perfect face and kissed him, trying to convey how everything about Jisung was what he wanted. Jisung made a surprised sound in the back of his throat but kissed him back with the same urgency.

‘Okay,’ he breathed out when they parted. ‘I guess that’s a yes?’

Minho laughed breathlessly.

‘You are incredible and perfect and you’re mine,’ he said.

Jisung smiled like it was enough and explained everything, warm and safe. He put the guitar away on the floor blindly, which wasn’t a nice way to take care of an instrument, and then moved closer and put his lips next to Minho’s ear. His breath fanned over Minho’s neck.

‘I love you too,’ he whispered.

And when they kissed again Minho’s heart felt a bit too full.

But when he felt Jisung’s hands wander under his shirt, no matter how much he wanted to just let go, there was something else.

‘Sungie,’ he pulled back a little to look at him. ‘You know, when you said I could stay at your place,’ he caught Jisung’s gaze on his lips and that almost made him stop talking at all. ‘I wasn’t sure if you meant I could stay the night or…’

‘Of course I meant the night,’ Jisung impatiently bit his lip.

It was a low blow and Minho had to blink several times to clear the view.

‘Well, I only took the toothbrush with me, nothing more,’ he tried tentatively.

Jisung hummed.

‘Okay,’ he said and tried to kiss Minho again.

Minho drew back a little more, effectively falling on his elbows.

‘What I want to say is,’ he met Jisung’s eyes. ‘I don’t have… you know, protection on me.’

Jisung frowned, but then realized. His eyes widened comically.

‘Oh,’ he said. ‘You mean condoms.’

Minho nodded.

‘I actually…’ the topic seemed to freak him out a bit for some reason. ‘I didn’t plan on having sex tonight. I though we could just… make out and cuddle.’

It was probably not the best line of conversation, but Minho pouted.

‘You don’t want to have sex with me?’ He asked dejectedly.

Jisung waved his hands.

‘Of course I want to have sex with you, babe!’ He objected, sounding scandalized. ‘Maybe even too much. Like, you have no idea what you do to me, really - you are so hot my brain just shuts down sometimes looking at you.’

Compliments like this usually didn’t affect Minho, since he received a lot of them in his career, but still it was nice to know that his boyfriend indeed found him desirable. So he winked at him, not seeing the problem.

‘But,’ Jisung continued, not deterred by it. ‘That’s exactly why I want to take it slow, if that’s okay. I just… I want to be very careful with you, because you are precious to me.’

Warm and fuzzy all over, Minho pulled him closer until he was on top.

‘Whatever you’re comfortable with, Sungie,’ he said. ‘We’ll do whatever you want. Even if you want to never have sex.’

Jisung moved till they were eye level.

‘Actually,’ he added, vaguely worried. ‘I would love to have sex one day. Not now, but we are doing it.’

Minho laughed.

‘Sure, Sungie,’ he agreed. ‘We are totally smashing.’

And he meant it when he said that with Jisung he was happy to do whatever. At that point in time he was pretty content with making out until he was practically buzzing, brain melted and empty. Tired, but good tired.

At some point they even stopped kissing, just lying together in comfortable silence.

Minho yawned.

‘Right,’ Jisung patted his hair. ‘We can change and go to bed. I’ll give you something to wear.’

Minho watched him dig into the wardrobe to extract an oversized black t-shirt with the big symbol of anarchy on it. He stretched, not moving to stand up, so Jisung threw him the clothes and went to wash up.

Listening to the sound of running water, Minho unlocked his phone and was met with the recent photo in his gallery. He imagined everyone’s reaction if he uploaded it to his instragram and tagged Spiderman. The chaos it would bring… He cackled to himself.

Jisung found him giggling dumbly, but Minho didn’t explain.

‘You’re so weird, hyung,’ Jisung shook his head.

Minho took a selfie in his bathroom mirror, examined it for any incriminating details and immediately uploaded it with a nonsense caption and no location. Maybe he wasn’t able to flaunt his relationship, but he still could have a little fun.

He changed into the anarchist t-shirt and went back to find Jisung already in bed, with lights off, also browsing on his phone.

‘Hey,’ Minho crawled under the blanket and snuggled to him. ‘What are you doing?’

He tossed around a bit, finding a comfortable position, and finally laid his head on Jisung’s chest and threw a leg over him, which turned out the coziest, especially when Jisung started softly petting his hair.

‘Checked something about that anime,’ he explained. ‘It’s a spoiler, so I won’t tell you, but I was right.’

Minho looked up at him.

‘Oh, I forgot about that,’ he was getting really sleepy. ‘We’ll finish it some other time, okay?’

Jisung hummed, agreeing, and the quietness fell over them. Well, almost.

‘Your heartbeat is so fast,’ Minho mumbled, feeling words tumble over each other.

Under his cheek he felt his heart beat rapidly, frantically. Like a bird in the cage.

‘It’s because of you, baby,’ Jisung said in an overly-cheesy tone, which earned him a weak smack from Minho.

‘It’s hyung to you,’ he reprimanded.

Jisung chuckled.

‘It is partially because of you,’ he insisted. ‘But mostly it just works like this now, after I got bitten by that spider. It’s new normal.’

Minho wanted to say ‘good’, but his mouth didn’t comply, so he just hummed. Jisung seemed to get it anyway.

Silence stilled the air again, and then something touched Minho’s lashes - softly, delicately.

‘You’re asleep already?’ Jisung whispered, and maybe Minho was already half-sleeping, because he didn’t open his eyes even when Jisung brushed his lashes again with his fingertips, then traced a line down his nose. ‘Goodnight, kitten.’

Falling asleep, Minho made a mental note to punish him for that terrible nickname in the morning.

***

Minho knew it was a bad idea to sneak out, especially this late. Felix told him not to do it, and Hyunjin would’ve agreed with him, if he wasn’t at his parents’ house this weekend.

But Minho had a plan, and also he was a legal adult and could take perfect care of himself. So when he took a taxi to a dense outskirt of the city, he didn’t warn anyone. Well, he did warn Felix that he was sneaking out, but only so that Felix could cover him to the manager, least he calls. Also, Felix would have probably embarrassed him if he knew what exactly Minho was up to.

And everything was going pretty swell, and the trustworthy establishment he visited held they end of the deal. He bought the thing without anyone even looking at him twice. In that respect he was right to do this so far from the city centre.

In other respects he was an idiot, so it was no wonder when he got dragged into a shady alleyway by two very dubious-looking gentleman.

‘I saw him at the jewelry store,’ one of them told the other, from the look of it not for the first time. ‘I’m telling you, he has money.’

The other one pushed Minho to the wall, which was really unpleasant, and looked him up and down.

‘And why are you hiding behind that mask?’ He scoffed. ‘What are you, an idol?’

The irony of the situation was impeccable.

‘You’re not gonna believe it,’ he muttered, unable to just shut up and deal with the situation reasonably.

However, before anything happened, there came a familiar voice from above.

‘Hey, people usually ask me that!’ Spiderman commented, hanging on a webbing upside-down. ‘All this ‘who are you behind that mask’ spiel!’

Minho blinked at him incredulously.

‘What are you doing here?’ He asked. Which might have been a little dumb, but really, what were the chances that he would happen to be in this area at this time?

Spiderman seemed to share his astonishment.

‘And what are you doing here?’ He echoed.

The thugs looked between them in a mix of apprehension and bewilderment.

‘Uhm,’ the first one, the one who snitched Minho out, cleared his throat and said. ‘We’re just gonna go.’

Spiderman didn’t move to stop them, so Minho shrugged.

‘Yeah, you’d better.’

And they disappeared as abruptly as they came, leaving Minho unrobbed and mostly unscathed. He looked up at Jisung, who was still upside-down, and took off his mask.

‘I have a certain sense of deja-vu,’ he remarked, weirdly amused. ‘Thanks, my knight in shining armour.’

Jisung didn’t move, but somehow the webbing grew longer, so now he still was hanging at a seemingly uncomfortable angle, but closer to the ground.

‘Are you okay?’ He asked, and when Minho nodded. ‘But really, what are you doing here? I thought you had plans with Felix.’

Minho clasped his hands around the thing in his pocket. He had had a plan before, but maybe this worked too.

‘This is not how I imagined it,’ he warned and cleared his throat awkwardly. ‘But… I got you something.’

Jisung lowered again so that they were eye to eye.

‘Me?’ He clarified in a small voice Minho came to associate with eyes wide and mouth rounded to the perfect o shape. This cute surprised expression of his.

Minho smiled.

‘That’s why I came here,’ he explained. ‘I wanted to keep it private. But, yeah. This is for you, Sung.’

Right there in that dirty alleyway he took the box out of his pocket.

‘It sucks that we can’t just be together like normal people. That we can’t do all the things the other couples get to enjoy. But I want you to know that we are real,’ he sighed, bracing himself, and opened the box.

There was a ring inside - simple design and engraving inside reading ‘Close’. Maybe tacky, but that what Minho wanted him to remember, and he knew Jisung would understand. Because he was Jisung and he always understood.

‘Oh, babe, I’m not sure I’m ready for marriage…’ Jisung drawled apologetically.

Well, maybe not always.

‘It’s not a proposal, dumbass,’ Minho smacked him lightly on the shoulder and Jisung laughed this annoying amused laughter of his Minho loved so much.

‘Okay, okay,’ he took the ring, still upside-down, and admired it for a second. ‘I can’t wear it right now, but… thank you. I love you too, baby.’

Minho frowned at him.

‘It’s hyung to you!’ He complained.

Jisung rolled the mask up to his nose. He was smiling, and he was beautiful, and the warmth and happiness radiated off him like music from an old radio.

He put a hand on Minho’s nape and brought him close. Minho held onto him as well, the sensation of the silky suit familiar under his touch.

‘I don’t know about that,’ Jisung said, his breath ghosting over Minho’s lips. ‘I think it can be baby to me. You know, boyfriend’s privilege.’

Minho smiled against his lips. It was a dumb smile, but he was too happy to care.

‘I hate you,’ he murmured and traced his fingers against Jisung’s soft skin.

‘You love me,’ Jisung replied.

Minho closed his eyes.

‘I do,’ he agreed.

And then they kissed.


End file.
